Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A lively, bright person.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A cricket; a grasshopper.
- n. The sand-eel; a small and very lively eel.
- n. A short-legged hen.
- n. One of a class of vagabond dancers and tumblers.
- n. Heath. Also griglan.
Wiktionary
- n. little creature, reptile;
- n. A cricket or grasshopper.
- n. 1926, Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist (Ch. 5):
- n. The black rooks will fly away, my son, and you'll come back as brown as a berry, and as merry as a grig.
- n. Any small eel.
- n. The broad-nosed eel. See Glut
- n. heath.
- v. To irritate or annoy.
GNU Webster's 1913
Etymologies
- Middle English, dwarf.
Examples
“And all the while Tom was swimming about in the river, with a pretty little lace-collar of gills about his neck, as lively as a grig, and as clean as a fresh-run salmon.”
“The learned gentleman who does the withering business and who blights all opponents with his gloomy sarcasm is as merry as a grig at a French watering – place.”
“Honestly, I have nothing to compare it to either, and neither does the "grig!”
“Last night, a person whom I always think of as a "merry auld grig" One of my fave Dickensonian words asked me The Question that nobody has asked -- not my mother, not my father, not my curious siblings, not my writing group.”
“This post has been removed by the author. grig-io il blogorroico May 3, 2007 2:10 AM # | Delete”
“Rolando the Lasso, and flaunt on the flimsyfilmsies for to grig my collage juniorees who, though they flush fuchsia, are they octette and virginity in my shade but always my figurants.”
“It had been a pleasant surprise when Mag-grig had misinterpreted Uther's question.”
Ghost King
“Before the eyes of the attackers the giant body shrank and Mag-grig pushed forward to stare at the dead but now human face.”
Ghost King
“And all the while Tom was swimming about in the river, with a pretty little lace collar of gills about his neck, as lively as a grig, and as clean as a fresh-run salmon.”
“Polly was happy as a grig, and all the others equally so.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘grig’.
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Eels
Words and phrases about eels.
apodal, conger, grig, never served raw, eelpout, eel, eelskin briefcase, eelskin, tribes in Persia ..., sniggling, sniggle, eel spear and 117 more...
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Cant terms
Words with the phrase "cant term" in their definitions.
placket, bogus, blackbird, henchman, becket, fly, whiggamore, caxon, panny, bid-stand, gull, palabras and 4 more...
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Hilarity ensues
Just a list of those words in the Century (and other dictionaries) here on Wordnik where a quotation has somehow found its way in as a definition. See comments on suist.
ruzuzu Yay! Thank you, hernesheir. Oct 20, 2011
hernesheir Here, An eel list. Oct 20, 2011
ruzuzu Has anyone made an eel list yet? Oct 20, 2011
hernesheir A grasshopper, an eel, a small hen. You pick. Oct 20, 2011
reesetee I agree. Pandora's box. Jul 18, 2009
madmouth you do not see the flameworthy (heh heh) possibilities of a "Gay as..." list? Jul 18, 2009
bilby Pandora was gay? *confuzzled* Jul 18, 2009
madmouth I've read gay as a grig, a derivation of "merry as a grig", presumably.
one wants a "gay as..." list but it's a Pandora's box. Jul 12, 2009
knitandpurl "'I am obliged to no one, Mrs Newton, and I am only too well aware that you are trying to grig me.'"
--The Winner of Sorrow by Brian Lynch, p 106 Jul 12, 2009
chained_bear "Bonden told him that his head was quite healed, 'could be hit with a top-maul and never a word' and himself lively as a parcel of grigs..."
--P. O'Brian, The Yellow Admiral, 198
I'm guessing this is in the sense of the 6th definition sionnach listed. Though for all I know a parcel of eels is just as pleasant. Mar 19, 2008
sionnach From "A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete" (1860)
GRIG:
(1) Heath. Salop.
(2) A cricket. Vаг. dial.
(3) A small eel. Suffolk.
(4) A farthing. An old cant term.
(5) To pinch. Somerset.
(6) A wag. " As merry as a grig." It is a corruption
of Greek, q. v. "A merry grig, un plaisant compagnon," Miege.
(7) A short-legged hen. Vаг. dial.
Which makes one wonder, if this small word can spawn seven such diverse meanings, how in hell does anyone manage to communicate? You go to the bank for farthings to feed into the comestible-dispensing apparatus and come away with a couple of eels and a short-legged hen. Well, I suppose you could trade them for some magic beans.... Jan 15, 2008
brtom Tantalising for the poor dead. Smell of frilled beefsteaks to the starving gnawing their vitals. Desire to grig people.
Joyce, Ulysses, 6 Dec 31, 2006