gripple meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

gripple

adj

/ˈɡɹɪpəl/

Etymology From Middle English gripel, from Old English gripol, gripul (“able to grasp much; capacious”); equivalent to grip + -le.

Northern England, Scotland, UK, Dialectal Griping; tenacious; gripping.

Northern England, Scotland, UK, Dialectal Grasping; greedy; snatchy; mean; niggardly; avaricious, covetous.

Still as he rode, he gnasht his teeth to see Those heapes of gold with griple Covetyse1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
It is easy to observe, that none are so gripple and hard fisted, as the childless […]1646, Jos[eph] Hall, The Balme of Gilead: Or, Comforts for the Distressed, both Morall and Divine. […], London: […] M[iles] Flesher, for Nat[haniel] Butter, →OCLC:

Scotland, UK, Dialectal Sprained.

Derived terms: grippleness

gripple

noun

Etymology From Middle English gryppel, from Old English *gripel, *grēpel, diminutive of Old English grep, grēpe (“furrow, ditch, drain”), equivalent to grip + -le (diminutive suffix). Cognate with German Low German Grüppel (“ditch”).

A ditch; a drain.

gripple

verb

Etymology From grip + -le (frequentative suffix).

Scotland, Obsolete, Rare To grasp or grab.

'If owt comes to Mulvaaney 'long o' you, I'll gripple you, clouts or no clouts on your ugly head, an' I'll draw t' throat twistyways, man. See there now.'1889, Rudyard Kipling, Life's Handicap, The Incarnation of Krishna Mulvaney:

gripple

noun

Etymology From grip + -le.

Obsolete, Rare A hook.

Obsolete, Rare A grasp; a grip.

Ne ever Artegall his griple strong / For any thing wold slacke, but still upon him hong.1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.