"grice" meaning in English

See grice in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ɡɹʌɪs/ [UK] Forms: gricen [plural], grices [plural], grise [alternative]
Rhymes: -ʌɪs Etymology: From Middle English gris, from Old Norse gríss (“male pig; pigling”). Compare Old Dutch gristo, gristio (“boar, wild boar”). Etymology templates: {{inh|en|enm|gris}} Middle English gris, {{der|en|non|gríss|t=male pig; pigling}} Old Norse gríss (“male pig; pigling”), {{cog|odt|gristo}} Old Dutch gristo Head templates: {{en-noun|gricen|s|}} grice (plural gricen or grices)
  1. (now Scotland) A pig, especially a young pig, or its meat; sometimes specifically, a breed of pig or boar native to north Britain, now extinct. Tags: Scotland Derived forms: griskin
    Sense id: en-grice-en-noun-hmkxsgTK Categories (other): Scottish English, English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 2 entries, Pages with entries, Pigs Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 7 42 Disambiguation of Pages with 2 entries: 53 11 36 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 56 7 37 Disambiguation of Pigs: 54 30 16
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 1

Noun

IPA: /ɡɹʌɪs/ [UK] Forms: grices [plural]
Rhymes: -ʌɪs Head templates: {{en-noun}} grice (plural grices)
  1. (obsolete) A step or stair. Tags: obsolete
    Sense id: en-grice-en-noun-VY33DVLE
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 3

Verb

IPA: /ɡɹʌɪs/ [UK] Forms: grices [present, singular, third-person], gricing [participle, present], griced [participle, past], griced [past]
Rhymes: -ʌɪs Etymology: Unknown, possibly from Richard Grice, the first champion trainspotterhttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rdU1xtIWJz0C&q=grice+trainspotter&dq=grice+trainspotter&hl=en&sa=X&ei=afhsT5ChFe-R0QWF8K3HBg&redir_esc=y, alternatively perhaps a humorous representation of an upper-class pronunciation of grouser (“grouse-shooter”)https://web.archive.org/web/20120313071637/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gricer. In either case the derivation could be direct or a back-formation from gricer. Etymology templates: {{unk|en}} Unknown, {{back-form|en|gricer|nocap=1}} back-formation from gricer Head templates: {{en-verb}} grice (third-person singular simple present grices, present participle gricing, simple past and past participle griced)
  1. (UK, rail transport, slang) to act as a trainspotter; to partake in the activity or hobby of trainspotting. Tags: UK, slang Related terms: gricer
    Sense id: en-grice-en-verb-YXadnsLp Categories (other): British English, Rail transportation, English entries with incorrect language header, English back-formations Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 7 42 Topics: rail-transport, railways, transport
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Etymology number: 2

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "gris"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English gris",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "non",
        "3": "gríss",
        "t": "male pig; pigling"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Norse gríss (“male pig; pigling”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "odt",
        "2": "gristo"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Dutch gristo",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English gris, from Old Norse gríss (“male pig; pigling”). Compare Old Dutch gristo, gristio (“boar, wild boar”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gricen",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "grices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "grise",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gricen",
        "2": "s",
        "3": ""
      },
      "expansion": "grice (plural gricen or grices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Scottish English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "52 7 42",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "53 11 36",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 2 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "56 7 37",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "54 30 16",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Pigs",
          "orig": "en:Pigs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "griskin"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              39,
              44
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd:",
          "text": "This fine Smooth bawson cub, the young grice of a gray",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              124,
              129
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1728, Robert Lindsay, The history of Scotland, from 21 February, 1436. to March, 1565: in which are contained accounts of many remarkable passages altogether differing from our other historians, and many facts are related, either concealed by some, or omitted by others, Mr. Baskett and Company, page 146:",
          "text": "Further, there was of meats wheat bread, main-bread and ginge-bread with fleshes, beef, mutton, lamb, veal, venison, goose, grice, capon, coney, cran, swan, partridge, plover, duck, drake, brissel-cock and pawnies, black-cock and muir-fowl, cappercaillies;",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1789, William Thomson, Mammuth: or, human nature displayed on a grand scale: in a tour with the tinkers, into the inland parts of Africa. By the man in the moon. In two volumes. publ. G. and T. Wilkie, pg.105",
          "text": "Through a door to one of the galleries, left half open on purpose I was attracted to a dainty hot supper, consisting of stewed mushrooms and the fat paps and ears of very young pigs, or, as they call them, gricen."
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              15,
              20
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2006 November 17, “Extinct island pig spotted again”, in BBC News:",
          "text": "A model of the grice - which was the size of a large dog and had tusks - has been created after work by researchers and a taxidermist.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A pig, especially a young pig, or its meat; sometimes specifically, a breed of pig or boar native to north Britain, now extinct."
      ],
      "id": "en-grice-en-noun-hmkxsgTK",
      "links": [
        [
          "pig",
          "pig"
        ],
        [
          "boar",
          "boar"
        ],
        [
          "extinct",
          "extinct"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now Scotland) A pig, especially a young pig, or its meat; sometimes specifically, a breed of pig or boar native to north Britain, now extinct."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Scotland"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɡɹʌɪs/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɪs"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grice"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gricer",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "back-formation from gricer",
      "name": "back-form"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown, possibly from Richard Grice, the first champion trainspotterhttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rdU1xtIWJz0C&q=grice+trainspotter&dq=grice+trainspotter&hl=en&sa=X&ei=afhsT5ChFe-R0QWF8K3HBg&redir_esc=y, alternatively perhaps a humorous representation of an upper-class pronunciation of grouser (“grouse-shooter”)https://web.archive.org/web/20120313071637/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gricer. In either case the derivation could be direct or a back-formation from gricer.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "grices",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gricing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "griced",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "griced",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "grice (third-person singular simple present grices, present participle gricing, simple past and past participle griced)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "British English",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Rail transportation",
          "orig": "en:Rail transportation",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "52 7 42",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English back-formations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              132,
              137
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1999 March 29, Tony Polson, “Re: Do all UK rail staff get free unlimited Eurostar travel?”, in uk.railway (Usenet):",
          "text": "Many people joined the railways because the 'carrot' of a staff pass was a considerable attraction, whether for family travel or to grice at extremely low cost.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              71,
              78
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2005 August, The Railway Magazine, volume 151, number 1252, IPC Business Press, page 55:",
          "text": "We can also roganise photo charters, large group footplate courses and gricing holidays [...]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              108,
              115
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010, Adam Jacot de Boinod, “Gricer's Daughter”, in I Never Knew There Was a Word For It, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Trainspotters may be mocked by the outside world, but they don't take criticism lying down: the language of gricing is notable for its acidic descriptions of outsiders.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to act as a trainspotter; to partake in the activity or hobby of trainspotting."
      ],
      "id": "en-grice-en-verb-YXadnsLp",
      "links": [
        [
          "rail transport",
          "rail transport"
        ],
        [
          "trainspotter",
          "trainspotter"
        ],
        [
          "trainspotting",
          "trainspotting"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, rail transport, slang) to act as a trainspotter; to partake in the activity or hobby of trainspotting."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "gricer"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "rail-transport",
        "railways",
        "transport"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɡɹʌɪs/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɪs"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grice"
}

{
  "etymology_number": 3,
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "grices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "grice (plural grices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              19,
              25
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1612, Ben Jonson, Love Restored:",
          "text": "he stood under the grices",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A step or stair."
      ],
      "id": "en-grice-en-noun-VY33DVLE",
      "links": [
        [
          "step",
          "step"
        ],
        [
          "stair",
          "stair"
        ],
        [
          "Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary",
          "w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909"
        ],
        [
          "G. & C. Merriam",
          "w:Merriam-Webster"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) A step or stair."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɡɹʌɪs/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɪs"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grice"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English nouns with irregular plurals",
    "English terms derived from Middle English",
    "English terms derived from Old Norse",
    "English terms inherited from Middle English",
    "Pages with 2 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɪs",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɪs/1 syllable",
    "en:Pigs"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "griskin"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_number": 1,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "enm",
        "3": "gris"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle English gris",
      "name": "inh"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "non",
        "3": "gríss",
        "t": "male pig; pigling"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Norse gríss (“male pig; pigling”)",
      "name": "der"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "odt",
        "2": "gristo"
      },
      "expansion": "Old Dutch gristo",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Middle English gris, from Old Norse gríss (“male pig; pigling”). Compare Old Dutch gristo, gristio (“boar, wild boar”).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "gricen",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "grices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "grise",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "gricen",
        "2": "s",
        "3": ""
      },
      "expansion": "grice (plural gricen or grices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Scottish English"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              39,
              44
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1641, Ben Jonson, The Sad Shepherd:",
          "text": "This fine Smooth bawson cub, the young grice of a gray",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              124,
              129
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1728, Robert Lindsay, The history of Scotland, from 21 February, 1436. to March, 1565: in which are contained accounts of many remarkable passages altogether differing from our other historians, and many facts are related, either concealed by some, or omitted by others, Mr. Baskett and Company, page 146:",
          "text": "Further, there was of meats wheat bread, main-bread and ginge-bread with fleshes, beef, mutton, lamb, veal, venison, goose, grice, capon, coney, cran, swan, partridge, plover, duck, drake, brissel-cock and pawnies, black-cock and muir-fowl, cappercaillies;",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1789, William Thomson, Mammuth: or, human nature displayed on a grand scale: in a tour with the tinkers, into the inland parts of Africa. By the man in the moon. In two volumes. publ. G. and T. Wilkie, pg.105",
          "text": "Through a door to one of the galleries, left half open on purpose I was attracted to a dainty hot supper, consisting of stewed mushrooms and the fat paps and ears of very young pigs, or, as they call them, gricen."
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              15,
              20
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2006 November 17, “Extinct island pig spotted again”, in BBC News:",
          "text": "A model of the grice - which was the size of a large dog and had tusks - has been created after work by researchers and a taxidermist.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A pig, especially a young pig, or its meat; sometimes specifically, a breed of pig or boar native to north Britain, now extinct."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "pig",
          "pig"
        ],
        [
          "boar",
          "boar"
        ],
        [
          "extinct",
          "extinct"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(now Scotland) A pig, especially a young pig, or its meat; sometimes specifically, a breed of pig or boar native to north Britain, now extinct."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Scotland"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɡɹʌɪs/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɪs"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grice"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English back-formations",
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms with unknown etymologies",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 2 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɪs",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɪs/1 syllable",
    "en:Pigs"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 2,
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en"
      },
      "expansion": "Unknown",
      "name": "unk"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "gricer",
        "nocap": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "back-formation from gricer",
      "name": "back-form"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Unknown, possibly from Richard Grice, the first champion trainspotterhttp://books.google.co.uk/books?id=rdU1xtIWJz0C&q=grice+trainspotter&dq=grice+trainspotter&hl=en&sa=X&ei=afhsT5ChFe-R0QWF8K3HBg&redir_esc=y, alternatively perhaps a humorous representation of an upper-class pronunciation of grouser (“grouse-shooter”)https://web.archive.org/web/20120313071637/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gricer. In either case the derivation could be direct or a back-formation from gricer.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "grices",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "gricing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "griced",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "griced",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "grice (third-person singular simple present grices, present participle gricing, simple past and past participle griced)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "gricer"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "British English",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Rail transportation"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              132,
              137
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1999 March 29, Tony Polson, “Re: Do all UK rail staff get free unlimited Eurostar travel?”, in uk.railway (Usenet):",
          "text": "Many people joined the railways because the 'carrot' of a staff pass was a considerable attraction, whether for family travel or to grice at extremely low cost.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              71,
              78
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2005 August, The Railway Magazine, volume 151, number 1252, IPC Business Press, page 55:",
          "text": "We can also roganise photo charters, large group footplate courses and gricing holidays [...]",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              108,
              115
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "2010, Adam Jacot de Boinod, “Gricer's Daughter”, in I Never Knew There Was a Word For It, →ISBN:",
          "text": "Trainspotters may be mocked by the outside world, but they don't take criticism lying down: the language of gricing is notable for its acidic descriptions of outsiders.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to act as a trainspotter; to partake in the activity or hobby of trainspotting."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "rail transport",
          "rail transport"
        ],
        [
          "trainspotter",
          "trainspotter"
        ],
        [
          "trainspotting",
          "trainspotting"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(UK, rail transport, slang) to act as a trainspotter; to partake in the activity or hobby of trainspotting."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "slang"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "rail-transport",
        "railways",
        "transport"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɡɹʌɪs/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɪs"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grice"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "Pages with 2 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɪs",
    "Rhymes:English/ʌɪs/1 syllable",
    "en:Pigs"
  ],
  "etymology_number": 3,
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "grices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "grice (plural grices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with obsolete senses",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              19,
              25
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1612, Ben Jonson, Love Restored:",
          "text": "he stood under the grices",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A step or stair."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "step",
          "step"
        ],
        [
          "stair",
          "stair"
        ],
        [
          "Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary",
          "w:Webster's Dictionary#Webster's New International Dictionary 1909"
        ],
        [
          "G. & C. Merriam",
          "w:Merriam-Webster"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(obsolete) A step or stair."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "obsolete"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ɡɹʌɪs/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʌɪs"
    }
  ],
  "word": "grice"
}

Download raw JSONL data for grice meaning in English (7.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-03-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-03-03 using wiktextract (05c257f and 9d9a410). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.