grutch

English

Alternative forms

• gruch

Etymology

The verb is from Middle English grucchen (attested since c. 1200), from Old French grouchier (“to grumble”), of unknown origin, perhaps from Germanic, and likely of onomatopoeic origin. Compare Frankish *grōtijan (“to accuse, yell at, make cry, scold”). The noun is from Middle English grucche, from the verb; it is attested since about 1400. See also grudge, grouch, grouse.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹʌt͡ʃ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌtʃ

Verb

grutch (third-person singular simple present grutches, present participle grutching, simple past and past participle grutched)

1. (intransitive) To murmur, complain.
   • 1891, Arthur Conan Doyle, The White Company:

     "But I am a man who may grutch and grumble, but when I have set my face to do a thing I will not turn my back upon it until it be done."

2. (obsolete) To grudge.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     But that their natures bad appeard in both:
     For both did at their second Sister grutch

Noun

grutch (plural grutches)

1. A complaint.
   • 1663, Samuel Butler, Hudibras, part 1, canto 1:

     In it he melted lead for bullets,
     To shoot at foes, and sometimes pullets;
     To whom he bore so fell a grutch,
     He ne'er gave quarter t' any such.

Translations