Meaning of Gripe | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A complaint, often a petty or trivial one.
2. A wire rope, often used on davits and other life raft launching systems.
3. Grasp; clutch; grip.
   obsolete
4. That which is grasped; a handle; a grip.
   obsolete
5. A device for grasping or holding anything; a brake to stop a wheel.
   dated
6. Oppression; cruel exaction; affliction; pinching distress.
   obsolete
7. Pinching and spasmodic pain in the intestines.
   in-plural

Equivalents

Examples

“A barren sceptre in my gripe.”

“The young peasant […] disengaged himself from Manfred's gripe […].”

“I started — I dropped the glass — the fluid flamed and glanced along the floor, while I felt Cornelius's gripe at my throat, as he shrieked aloud, "Wretch! you have destroyed the labour of my life!"”

“the gripe of a sword”

“the gripe of poverty”

“'Tis the cruel gripe, / That lean hard-handed poverty inflicts, / The hope of better things, the chance to win, / The wiſh to ſhine, the thirſt to be amus'd, / That at the found of Winter's hoary wing, / Unpeople all our counties, of ſuch herds, / Of flutt'ring, loit'ring, cringing, begging, looſe, / And wanton vagrants, as make London, vaſt / And boundless as it is, a crowded coop.”

CEFR level