GRIPE, v.t. [L.rapio.] 1. To seize; to grasp; to catch with the hand, and to clasp closely with the fingers.2. To hold fast; to hold with the fingers closely pressed.3. To seize and hold fast in the arms; to embrace closely.4. To close the fingers; to clutch.5. To pinch; to press; to compress.6. To give pain to the bowels, as if by pressure or contraction.7. To pinch; to straiten; to distress; as griping poverty.GRIPE, v.i. To seize or catch by pinching; to get money by hard bargains or mean exactions; as a griping miser. 1. To feel the colic.2. To lie too close to the wind, as a ship.GRIPE, n. Grasp; seizure; fast hold with the hand or paw, or with the arms. 1. Squeeze; pressure.2. Oppression; cruel exactions.3. Affliction; pinching distress; as the gripe of poverty.4. In seamen's language, the fore-foot or piece of timber which terminates the keel at the fore-end.5. Gripes, in the plural, distress of the bowels; colic.6. Gripes, in seamen's language, an assemblage of ropes, dead-eyes and hooks, fastened to ring-bolts in the deck to secure the boats.
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