Grouch

//ɡɹaʊt͡ʃ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A complaint, a grumble, a fit of ill-humor.

    "But today he had noticed from the moment he had got out of bed that something was amiss with the world. Either he was in the grip of some divine discontent due to the highly developed condition of his soul, or else he had a grouch."

  2. 2
    a bad-tempered person wordnet
  3. 3
    One who is grumpy or irritable.

    "I don't feel like hanging around with that grouch."

Verb
  1. 1
    To be grumpy or irritable; to complain. intransitive

    "He spent all his time grouching about the problem instead of fixing it."

  2. 2
    show one's unhappiness or critical attitude wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
grumbleair a grievancebe grouchybearbeefbeef

Example

More examples

"He is a bit of a grouch in the morning."

Etymology

From Middle English grouchen, variant of grucchen (“to complain, mumble, murmur”). See grutch.

Related phrases

grouch bagmorning grouch

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.