Grudge

How to spell grudge

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce grudge

What does grudge mean?

1. nounA persistent feeling of resentment or ill will held against someone over a past wrong.
2. verbTo be reluctant or unwilling to give, allow, or admit something.

Grudge in a sentence

• noun

  She held a grudge against her old boss for years after the dismissal.

• verb

  Few colleagues would grudge him a little time off after such a hard year.

• noun

  He is not the type to nurse a grudge over a forgotten birthday.

• verb

  They would never grudge a small donation to the local shelter.

Where does grudge come from?

Language of origin: French

This word goes back to the Middle English verb grucchen, meaning 'to grumble' or 'to complain', which English took from the Old French verb grouchier, 'to murmur or grumble in discontent'. The French form itself was probably imitative, echoing the low muttering sound of someone quietly resenting something, though its deeper origin is genuinely uncertain. Over the centuries the spelling drifted from grutch to grudge, with the soft -dge ending settling in by the 1500s as English standardised that sound. The same family of muttering words gave English the now informal 'grouch', a habitually grumpy person, which is a useful clue that grudge is about simmering, low-level resentment rather than open anger. The trap in spelling it is the -dge cluster, which sounds like a simple 'j' but needs the silent d.

How the word is built

• grudge (from Middle English grucchen: to grumble, complain), a single root with no separable prefix or suffix