gripe

GRIPE, verb transitive [Latin rapio.] 1. To seize; to grasp; to catch with the hand, and to clasp closely with the fingers. 2. To hold fast; to hold with the fingers closely pressed. 3. To seize and hold fast in the arms; to embrace closely. 4. To close the fingers; to clutch. 5. To pinch; to press; to compress. 6. To give pain to the bowels, as if by pressure or contraction. 7. To pinch; to straiten; to distress; as griping poverty. GRIPE, verb intransitive To seize or catch by pinching; to get money by hard bargains or mean exactions; as a griping miser. 1. To feel the colic. 2. To lie too close to the wind, as a ship. GRIPE, noun Grasp; seizure; fast hold with the hand or paw, or with the arms. 1. Squeeze; pressure. 2. Oppression; cruel exactions. 3. Affliction; pinching distress; as the gripe of poverty. 4. In seamen's language, the fore-foot or piece of timber which terminates the keel at the fore-end. 5. Gripes, in the plural, distress of the bowels; colic. 6. Gripes, in seamen's language, an assemblage of ropes, dead-eyes and hooks, fastened to ring-bolts in the deck to secure the boats.