grouse

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹaʊs/

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• Rhymes: -aʊs

Attested in the 1530s, as grows ("moorhen"), a plural used collectively. Of unknown origin. Connections to Latin gruta and French grue (“crane”) are generally rejected, but it could be a borrowing from Celtic or a different Medieval Latin word instead.

grouse (plural grouse or grouses)

1. Any of various game birds of the subfamily Tetraoninae which inhabit temperate and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere.

grouse (third-person singular simple present grouses, present participle grousing, simple past and past participle groused)

1. To seek or shoot grouse.

As a verb from the late 19th century (first recorded by Kipling), as a noun from the early 20th century; origin uncertain, possibly from French groucier (“to murmur, grumble”), in origin onomatopoeic. Compare grutch with the same meaning, but attestation from the 1200s, whence also grouch.

grouse (plural grouses)

1. A cause for complaint.

grouse (third-person singular simple present grouses, present participle grousing, simple past and past participle groused)

1. To complain or grumble.
   • 1890, Kipling, The Young British Soldier

     If you're cast for fatigue by a sergeant unkind,

     Don't grouse like a woman, nor crack on, nor blind;

     Be handy and civil, and then you will find

     That it's beer for the young British soldier.

1930s, origin uncertain. Perhaps from British dialect. Compare Lothian Scots groosh (“excellent”), grushie (“having thriving vegetation”); ultimately from gross (“large”).

grouse (comparative grouser, superlative grousest)

1. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Excellent.

   I had a grouse day.

   That food was grouse.

   • 1991, Tim Winton, Cloudstreet, Scribner Paperback Fiction 2002, page 182,

     They were the grousest ladies she′d ever met.

   • 1998 July 23, Stujo, “SPOILER FTF - questions”, in aus.tv.x-files, Usenet‎:

     Not a question but the gag of Mulder pissing on the ID4 poster was grouse.

   • 2003 October 4, Leeroy, “FS Ultralight Aircraft”, in aus.motorcycles, Usenet‎:

     I know, but I moved from riding bikes to flying and it is a great move. All riders without a fear of heights I know that flew with me thought it was grouse- and there are no coppers or speed limits up there.

• -gerous, Rogues, orgues, rogues, rouges, rugose