grief

[greef] /grif/
noun
1.
keen mental suffering or distress over affliction or loss; sharp sorrow; painful regret.
2.
a cause or occasion of keen distress or sorrow.
Idioms
3.
come to grief, to suffer disappointment, misfortune, or other trouble; fail:
Their marriage came to grief after only two years.
4.
good grief, (used as an exclamation of dismay, surprise, or relief):
Good grief, it's started to rain again!
Origin
1175-1225; Middle English gref, grief < Anglo-French gref; see grieve
Related forms
griefless, adjective
grieflessness, noun
Synonyms
1. anguish, heartache, woe, misery; sadness, melancholy, moroseness. See sorrow.
Antonyms
1. joy.
Examples from the web for grief
  • Most of the time, schizophrenia causes great grief and suffering for the patients and their families.
  • When a loved one departs, the first stage of grief is denial.
  • We all are very saddened by his loss and wish him and his family stability and support in this time of unimaginable grief.
  • Dealing with feelings on one's own after a community-wide traumatic event may be better than formal grief counseling.
  • Elephants appear to suffer serious depression after losing companions; some say elephants have even died of grief.
  • First I surrendered to the grief.
  • The story is one of grief, courage and emotional rejuvenation.
  • It was a perfect storm of perfectly horrific proportions and no science cannot assuage the grief there, or here.
  • Sounds like a great way to help cope with stress and grief, en masse.
  • The only surprise is how quickly the grief is arriving.
British Dictionary definitions for grief

grief

/ɡriːf/
noun
1.
deep or intense sorrow or distress, esp at the death of someone
2.
something that causes keen distress or suffering
3.
(informal) trouble or annoyance: people were giving me grief for leaving ten minutes early
4.
(informal) come to grief, to end unsuccessfully or disastrously
5.
tune someone grief, See tune (sense 17)
Derived Forms
griefless, adjective
Word Origin
C13: from Anglo-French gref, from grever to grieve1
Word Origin and History for grief
n.

early 13c., "hardship, suffering, pain, bodily affliction," from Old French grief "wrong, grievance, injustice, misfortune, calamity" (13c.), from grever "afflict, burden, oppress," from Latin gravare "to cause grief, make heavy," from gravis "weighty" (see grave (adj.)). Meaning "mental pain, sorrow" is from c.1300.

grief in Medicine

grief (grēf)
n.
Deep mental anguish, as that arising from bereavement.

Slang definitions & phrases for grief

grief

noun

Complaints; faultfinding; reprimand: I don't want no grief from the fourteenth floor (1929+)

Related Terms

give someone grief


Idioms and Phrases with grief

grief

see: