grieve
verb /ɡriːv/
/ɡriːv/
Verb Forms
Idioms | present simple I / you / we / they grieve | /ɡriːv/ /ɡriːv/ |
| he / she / it grieves | /ɡriːvz/ /ɡriːvz/ |
| past simple grieved | /ɡriːvd/ /ɡriːvd/ |
| past participle grieved | /ɡriːvd/ /ɡriːvd/ |
| -ing form grieving | /ˈɡriːvɪŋ/ /ˈɡriːvɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive, transitive] to feel very sad, especially because somebody has died
- grieve (for/over somebody/something) They are still grieving for their dead child.
- grieving relatives
- grieve somebody/something She grieved the death of her husband.
Extra ExamplesTopics Feelingsc2- She had grieved deeply for her father.
- He spoke on behalf of the grieving families.
- The couple are grieving over the loss of their daughter.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb- deeply
- privately
- silently
- …
- for
- over
- [transitive] (formal) to make you feel very sad synonym pain
- it grieves somebody that… It grieved him that he could do nothing to help her.
- grieve somebody Their lack of interest grieved her.
- it grieves somebody to do something It grieved her to leave.
Word OriginMiddle English (also in the sense ‘harm, oppress’): from Old French grever ‘burden, encumber’, based on Latin gravare, from gravis ‘heavy, grave’.
Idioms
what the eye doesn’t see (the heart doesn’t grieve over)
- (saying) if a person does not know about something that they would normally think was bad, then it cannot hurt them
- What does it matter if I use his flat while he’s away? What the eye doesn’t see…!