as in complaining
to express dissatisfaction, pain, or resentment usually tiresomely
hasn't stopped grousing since we started this vacation
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Recent Examples of grousing
For all of you grousing that the Broncos could have just drafted a player like Waddle, Payton has not developed his Nik Bonitto on offense as Vance Joseph has on defense.
—
Troy Renck, Denver Post, 18 Mar. 2026
In the movie’s first dramatic scene, achingly redolent of memory, the brothers—the older is eleven, the younger eight—loll in front of their family’s house, snacking, grousing, playing with paper action figures, trying to fill the solitude and the silence around them with banter and bravado.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2026
Twin could hear her neighbors grousing but unable to swallow their anger and spit out her own.
—Literary Hub, 29 Jan. 2026
Here, Lee gets at the crux of his self-satire, as well as the grousing anti-capitalism of Kurosawa’s original movie, in which the protagonist has also let business cloud his moral judgment.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 19 Aug. 2025
Troy Renck, Denver Post, 18 Mar. 2026
In the movie’s first dramatic scene, achingly redolent of memory, the brothers—the older is eleven, the younger eight—loll in front of their family’s house, snacking, grousing, playing with paper action figures, trying to fill the solitude and the silence around them with banter and bravado.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2026
Twin could hear her neighbors grousing but unable to swallow their anger and spit out her own.
—Literary Hub, 29 Jan. 2026
Here, Lee gets at the crux of his self-satire, as well as the grousing anti-capitalism of Kurosawa’s original movie, in which the protagonist has also let business cloud his moral judgment.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 19 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grousing
Verb
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Elsewhere, Super Mario Galaxy is hardly complaining about coming in second ruling the roost for weeks, since it’s now focused on becoming the first film of the year to join the billion-dollar club after finishing Sunday with a global total of $871 million.—
Pamela McClintock,
HollywoodReporter,
26 Apr. 2026
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The dog-waste donnybrook was similar to another recent clash in Brooklyn that saw a 75-year-old grandmother jumped and beaten for complaining that a dog walker was not cleaning up the pooch’s poop.—
Kerry Burke,
New York Daily News,
25 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Richter’s grand slam Tuesday against Tinley Park ended with plenty of screaming and high-fives at home plate.—
Tony Baranek,
Chicago Tribune,
29 Apr. 2026
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Any passengers not knocked out during the chaos or sucked out into the sky are generally screaming and grabbing for oxygen masks while Captain Rich makes a futile announcement about the importance of not panicking.—
David Rooney,
HollywoodReporter,
28 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Seattle families deal with this all the time, and the city is packed with indoor options that will keep your crew happy — no need to endure whining.—
Lauren Schuster,
Fort Worth Star-Telegram,
23 Apr. 2026
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On the other end, the Rockets were a complete mess, dissolving in two whining technical fouls in the third quarter that sealed their fate.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
19 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Grousing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grousing. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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