Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A habitually complaining or irritable person.
  • noun A grumbling or sulky mood.
  • noun A complaint; a grudge.
  • intransitive verb To grumble or sulk.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fit of sulkiness.
  • To be sullen or morose.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A bad-tempered person.
  • intransitive verb to complain habitually, especially about minor or routine annoyances.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who is grumpy or irritable.
  • verb intransitive To be grumpy or irritable; to complain.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb show one's unhappiness or critical attitude
  • noun a bad-tempered person

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From Middle English grucchen, to grumble, complain; see grudge.]

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Examples

  • LIke I care that an old grouch is going to appear on SNL what a joke!!!!!!

    McCain to make SNL appearance 2008

  • Say “computer lingo” to most people, and they’ll rattle off their rudimentary knowledge of the meaning of byte, hacker and cybersex gritch the last marries digiporn to the portmanteau of grouch and glitch, producing a phrase meaning “hacker’s complaint about the encryption of dirty pictures”.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • Say “computer lingo” to most people, and they’ll rattle off their rudimentary knowledge of the meaning of byte, hacker and cybersex gritch the last marries digiporn to the portmanteau of grouch and glitch, producing a phrase meaning “hacker’s complaint about the encryption of dirty pictures”.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • Say “computer lingo” to most people, and they’ll rattle off their rudimentary knowledge of the meaning of byte, hacker and cybersex gritch the last marries digiporn to the portmanteau of grouch and glitch, producing a phrase meaning “hacker’s complaint about the encryption of dirty pictures”.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • Say “computer lingo” to most people, and they’ll rattle off their rudimentary knowledge of the meaning of byte, hacker and cybersex gritch the last marries digiporn to the portmanteau of grouch and glitch, producing a phrase meaning “hacker’s complaint about the encryption of dirty pictures”.

    No Uncertain Terms William Safire 2003

  • Elmo is creepy even when I was kid I thought he was one of the stupiest muppets ever made and Oscar the grouch is a total pussy now he lives in a fucking recycling bin, Jim Henson must be rolling over in his grave.

    1UP RSS feed 2009

  • As the convicts would say, it had a "grouch" against the world.

    Chapter 5 2010

  • But the Templeton's most famous baby is the young field of Positive Psychology, launched by University of Pennsylvania's Martin Seligman after his five-year-old daughter accused him of being a "grouch" and he resolved improve his outlook.

    Barbara Ehrenreich: The Right's Academic Universe 2008

  • "Ha! I think I see myself!" exclaimed the "grouch," as he looked for a seaweed-cushioned rock whereon to sit.

    The Moving Picture Girls at Sea or, A Pictured Shipwreck That Became Real Laura Lee Hope

  • He and the girls, in common with the other members of the Comet Film Company, had to portray many different scenes in the course of a season's work, and though some of it was distasteful, it was seldom objected to by anyone, unless perhaps by Pepper Sneed, the "grouch," or perhaps by Mr. Wellington Bunn, an actor of the old school, who could not reconcile himself to the silent drama.

    The Moving Picture Girls at Sea or, A Pictured Shipwreck That Became Real Laura Lee Hope

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