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grig

English

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grig¹

  • /ɡɹɪɡ/

Sounds like Grigg · Rhymes with -ɪɡ

Where it comes from

The word is often used in the phrase "merry as a grig". The word is of uncertain origin, though various theories have been suggested, such as a corruption of "merry as a cricket" or "merry as a Greek", as in William Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida: "Then she's a merry Greek indeed." Johnson suggested that the word originally meant "anything below the natural size" (compare Swedish krik and Scots crick).

noun grigs

  1. obsolete A dwarf.
  2. A cricket or grasshopper. The black rooks will fly away, my son, and you'll come back as brown as a berry, and as merry as a grig.
  3. A small or young eel. [W]e assembled at one o'clock, at two sat down to dinner, consisting of capital stewed grigs, a dish Mrs Burt was famous for dressing, a large joint of roast or boiled meat, with proper vegetables and a good-sized pudding or pie […] .
  4. Specifically, the broad-nosed eel. See glut.

grig²

  • /ɡɹɪɡ/

Sounds like Grigg · Rhymes with -ɪɡ

Where it comes from

From Welsh grug, Cornish grig.

noun

  1. Shropshire, UK, dialectal Heath or heather. The further method of tillage pursued, was to make fallows; and if the season permitted, so that the ground could be cleared and burnt off, to destroy the grig or heath, […]

grig³

  • /ɡɹɪɡ/

Sounds like Grigg · Rhymes with -ɪɡ

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Irish griog.

verb grigs · grigging · grigged

  1. Ireland, US To irritate or annoy. Smell of grilled beefsteaks to the starving gnawing their vitals. Desire to grig people.

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MLA

"grig." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/grig. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

grig. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/grig

Chicago

"grig." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/grig.

BibTeX
@misc{grig_2026,
  title = {grig},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/grig},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}