gruff
/ɡɹʌf/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 2.81 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
hoarse-voiced.
adj
noun
Alternative spelling of grough (“gully in a moor”).
Example Sentences
- "a gruff woman"
- "a gruff voice"
- "“Who gave you that?” replied my father angrily. “Did you bribe someone?” “No,” I told him. “It was a gift, from some people who really want me to be on this trip.” “Fine,” he gruffed."
- "[…] Yorkshire and Derbyshire, where [...] the ordinary sportsman has to go "gruffing," as it is called, to game game, i. e., stealing up the "gruffs" or gullies and undulations in the ground, and trying all the clumps of long old twisted heather and broken bogs. […] the open places on the moor, and thus driving the birds forward to deep lying bogs and "gruffs" […]"
- "They found Uttley's body on the bottom of the gruff."
- "[…] the body […] was found in a 'gruff' or gully about three-quarters of a mile from the Poacher's Leap."
Etymology
16th century, from Dutch grof and/or Middle Low German grof (both “rough, coarse, rude”), from Old Dutch *grof or Old Saxon *grof, both from Proto-West Germanic *grob, from Proto-Germanic *grubaz (“coarse, rough”), possibly from an earlier *gahrubaz and then related with *hreubaz (“scabby, rough, scrubby”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian groaf (“rough, coarse, crude”), West Frisian grof (“rough, coarse, crude”), Low German groff (“rough, coarse, crude”), German grob (“rough, coarse, crude”), Swedish grov (“rough, coarse, crude”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɡɹʌf/
- British English: /ɡɹʌf/