grieve

The definition of grieve is to feel pain or sadness as a result of a loss, or to cause pain or stress to someone.

(verb)

An example of greive is what you do and how you feel after a loved one dies.

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See grieve in Webster's New World College Dictionary

transitive verb grieved, grieving

  1. to cause to feel grief; afflict with deep, acute sorrow or distress
  2. to challenge (some action, decision, etc. of management) by filing and pursuing a grievance
  3. Archaic to harm; injure

Origin: ME greven < OFr grever < L gravare, to burden, grieve < gravis, heavy, grievous: see grave

intransitive verb

  1. to feel deep, acute sorrow or distress; mourn
  2. to grieve some action, decision, etc. of management

See grieve in American Heritage Dictionary 4

verb grieved grieved, griev·ing, grieves
verb, transitive
  1. To cause to be sorrowful; distress: It grieves me to see you in such pain.
  2. To mourn or sorrow for: We grieved the death of our pastor.
  3. Usage Problem To file an official or formal grievance on account of (an actual or perceived injustice).
  4. Archaic To hurt or harm.
verb, intransitive
To experience or express grief.

Origin:

Origin: Middle English greven

Origin: , from Old French grever, to harm

Origin: , from Latin gravāre, to burden

Origin: , from gravis, heavy; see gwerə-1 in Indo-European roots

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Related Forms:

  • grievˈer noun
  • grievˈing·ly adverb
Usage Note: Traditionally, the transitive verb grieve, meaning “to cause to be sorrowful; distress,” has taken as its direct object the person who is sorrowful or distressed, as in It grieves me to see so many homeless in the city. In addition to this use of the word, a newer syntactic pattern has developed, in which the direct object refers to that which causes one sorrow or distress. Sixty-two percent of the Usage Panel approves of this use, as in She took a week off to attend her father's funeral and grieve his loss. The Panel, however, largely frowns upon extending the semantic domain of the transitive verb grieve to mean “to file a formal or an official grievance.” Only 14 percent approves of its use in a context in which a coach who was asked to resign had grieved his dismissal. This strong reaction may be due to the discomfort of extending a solemn, mournful term into less somber situations; however, this sense is useful in the context of union-management labor relations.

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