grin

• enPR: grĭn, IPA^(key): /ɡɹɪn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪn

From Middle English grinnen, from Old English grennian, from Proto-West Germanic *grannjōn, from Proto-Germanic *granjōną. Related to groan. Compare to Middle High German grennen (“to mutter, complain”) and Danish grine (“to show one's teeth, to laugh”)

• gren (obsolete)

grin (plural grins)

1. A smile in which the lips are parted to reveal the teeth.
   • 1997, Linda Howard, Son of the Morning, Simon & Schuster, page 364:

     When the ceremony was finished a wide grin broke across his face, and it was that grin she saw, relieved and happy all at once.

   • 2003, Yoko Ogawa, The Housekeeper and the Professor:

     When my son appeared at the door the next day with his schoolbag on his back, the Professor broke into a wide grin and opened his arms to embrace him.

grin (third-person singular simple present grins, present participle grinning, simple past and past participle grinned)

1. (intransitive) To smile, parting the lips so as to show the teeth.

   Why do you grin?  Did I say something funny?

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’

2. (transitive) To express by grinning.

   She grinned pleasure at his embarrassment.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Grinned horrible a ghastly smile.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IV, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     "Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins," remarked Selwyn as he started for church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the grippe, and now moaned all day: "Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir!"

3. (intransitive, dated) To show the teeth, like a snarling dog.
   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     The pangs of death do make him grin.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

     They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.

4. (transitive) To grin as part of producing a particular facial expression, such as a smile or sneer.

   He grinned a broad smile when I told him the result.

   He grinned a cruel sneer when I begged him to stop.

• grimace
• smile

From Middle English grin, grinne, grine, from Old English grin (“snare, noose”), of uncertain origin, but probably from the merger of Proto-West Germanic *garni and *garnī (“intestine”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *garniz, *garnō (“guts, intestine”). Related to English yarn.

grin (plural grins)

1. (obsolete) A snare; a gin.

• midgen
• yarn

• James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Grin”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.

• NGRI, Ring, girn, ring

From English green.

grin

1. green

See grine (“to laugh”)

• IPA^(key): /ɡriːn/, [ɡ̊ʁiːˀn]

grin n (singular definite grinet, plural indefinite grin)

1. laugh
2. grin
3. fun

grin

1. imperative of grine

• “grin” in Den Danske Ordbog

From the verb grine.

grin n (definite singular grinet, indefinite plural grin, definite plural grina or grinene)

1. a grimace
2. a sneer

• “grin” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “grin_2” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From the verb grine, grina.

grin n (definite singular grinet, indefinite plural grin, definite plural grina)

1. a grimace
2. a sneer

grin

1. inflection of grina:
   1. present
   2. imperative

• “grin” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• gryn, giren, geren

Origin obscure. Probably from earlier *gren(e); partly from Proto-West Germanic *granī̆ n, a metathetic alteration of Proto-West Germanic *garnī (“intestine”), derived from Proto-Germanic *garnō (“intestine, guts”); and partly from a metathesis of Proto-West Germanic *garni f, from Proto-Germanic *garniz, a byform of *garnō. Animal intestines were often cured and dried to create durable cords which could be used in making snares: compare Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ, “gut", also "string made of gut”).

• IPA^(key): /ɡriːn/, /ɡrin/

grīn or grin f or n

1. snare
2. noose

• Feminine uses contain a long vowel ī, whereas the neuter contain a short vowel i.

Fem

Strong ō-stem:

Neut

Strong a-stem:

• ġegrin

• ġearn
• ġegrinan
• *granu
• grinian
• miċġerne

• Middle English: grin, gryn, grune, grinne, grenne, grynne, grunne, gren, grane, grone
  • English: grin, grane
  • Scots: girn

From English green.

grin

1. green

From Middle High German grüene, from Old High German gruoni.

• Audio:

  (file)

grīn

1. green