English

Alternative forms

• griple
• grippal, griple
• grippill (Scotland)

Adjective

gripple ‎(comparative more gripple, superlative most gripple)

1. (Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Griping; tenacious; gripping.
2. (Britain dialectal, Northern England, Scotland) Grasping; greedy; snatchy; mean; niggardly; avaricious, covetous.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

   • Bishop Joseph Hall

     It is easy to observe, that none are so gripple and hard fisted, as the childless […]

3. (Britain dialectal, Scotland) Sprained.

Etymology 2

From Middle English gryppel, from Old English *gripel, *grēpel, diminutive of Old English grep, grēpe ‎(“furrow, ditch, drain”), equivalent to grip +‎ -le ‎(diminutive suffix). Cognate with German Low German Grüppel ‎(“ditch”).

Noun

gripple ‎(plural gripples)

1. A ditch; a drain.

Etymology 3

From grip +‎ -le.

Noun

gripple ‎(plural gripples)

1. (obsolete, rare) A hook.
2. (obsolete, rare) A grasp; a grip.
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.2:

     Ne ever Artegall his griple strong / For any thing wold slacke, but still upon him hong.

Etymology 4

From grip +‎ -le ‎(frequentative suffix).

Verb

gripple ‎(third-person singular simple present gripples, present participle grippling, simple past and past participle grippled)

1. (transitive, rare) To grasp.