adj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
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"Among fowls for the table [of King Henry VIII] are crocards, winders, runners, grows, and peions, but neither Turky or Guiney-fowl."
"If you're cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind, Don't grouse like a woman, nor crack on, nor blind; Be handy and civil, and then you will find That it's beer for the young British soldier."
"I had a grouse day."
"He's got nothing to grouse about."
Any of various game birds of the subfamily Tetraoninae which inhabit temperate and subarctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere; specifically, the red grouse (Lagopus lagopus scotica) native to heather moorland on the British Isles.
Common synonyms include: air a grievance, argufy, beef, beef, beef, beefing.
He's got nothing to grouse about.
Pronounced /ɡɹaʊs/.
Attested in the 1530s, as grows ("moorhen"), a plural used collectively. The origin of the noun is unknown; the following derivations have been suggested: * From Old French grue (“crane”) (modern French grue) or Medieval Latin gruta (“crane”), both from Latin grūs (“crane”). * Borrowed from Celtic or a different Medieval Latin word. * Imitative of the bird’s call. The verb is derived from the noun.
The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly borrowed from Norman groucier, from Old French groucier, grousser (“to grumble, murmur”) [and other forms] (whence grutch (“to complain; to murmur”) and grouch). The further etymology is unknown, but it may be derived from Frankish *grōtijan (“to make cry, scold, rebuke”) or of onomatopoeic origin. The noun is derived from the verb.
Uncertain; possibly from British dialectal groosh (“excellent, very good”) (Lothian (Scotland)), grosh (northeast Lancashire) and groshy (“having thriving vegetation; juicy and tender; of weather: good for vegetation, rainy”) (Lancashire, Yorkshire), grushie (“having thriving vegetation”) (Scotland); from Scots groosh (“excellent, very good”) (Lothian, obsolete), grush (obsolete), grushie, grushy (“growing healthily or lushly; excellent, very good”) (both archaic), from gross (“lacking refinement, coarse; fat; large”) + -ie (suffix meaning ‘rather, somewhat’).