grinch

noun

ˈgrinch How to pronounce grinch (audio)
Definition of grinchnext
as in cynic
a person who spoils the pleasure of others accused the mayor of being a grinch after he cancelled the city's annual holiday parade for budgetary reasons

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of grinch Tired of looking like the grinch (can't help the hair). — David Faris, Newsweek, 27 Feb. 2025 The Pompano Beach, Fla. doesn’t play grinch alone; Veeze, Lil Yachty, Rob49, Juvenile, and B.G. also appear on the project. — Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 27 Dec. 2024 Buy Now 08 of 26 'How My Neighbor Stole Christmas' by Meghan Quinn A neighborhood grinch learns the true meaning of Christmas courtesy of his sunshiny neighbor in How My Neighbor Stole Christmas. — Sabienna Bowman, People.com, 14 Dec. 2024
Recent Examples of Synonyms for grinch
  1. cynic
  2. drag
  3. killjoy
  4. crab
  5. spoilsport
  6. bore
  7. party pooper
  8. wet blanket
Noun
  • And yes, there are plenty of options for V-Day cynics, including He's Just Not That Into You and a particularly bloody '80s slasher flick.
    — Glamour, Glamour, 7 Feb. 2025
  • All one needs is to read the headlines today, 45 years down the road, to see that sometimes cynics have a point.
    — George Monastiriakos, Newsweek, 30 Dec. 2024
Definition of cynic
Noun
  • Between voluminous drags, Skarsgård’s Philip is complaining about his wife’s bitter reaction to discovering his infidelity.
    — Angelica Jade Bastién, Vulture, 14 Mar. 2025
  • To that end, the facility can now help evaluate a bike's drag and lift, as well as cooling efficiency.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 11 Mar. 2025
Definition of drag
Noun
  • Within the dog-button community, Horowitz is regarded as a killjoy.
    — Camille Bromley Gabra Zackman Krish Seenivasan David Mason, New York Times, 6 Jan. 2025
  • Esther is the original feminist killjoy — acerbic, brilliant, obsessive, confrontational, deeply relatable.
    — Jillian Eugenios, NBC News, 29 Dec. 2024
Definition of killjoy
Noun
  • The Lowcountry Boil — with crab legs, corn, and shrimp and lots of Old Bay seasoning — is worth the price, too.
    — Kayleigh Ruller, Charlotte Observer, 12 Mar. 2025
  • More than two dozen crabs were involved in the feeding frenzy, including one that appeared to have gotten inside the jellyfish and was eating its way out.
    — Mark Price, Miami Herald, 12 Mar. 2025
Definition of crab
Noun
  • Suddenly, the Republicans were the spoilsports who couldn’t take the joke, a position stereotypically held by politically correct liberals.
    — Rebecca Jennings, Vox, 9 Aug. 2024
  • Millennial workers are increasingly becoming the office spoilsports, with young people increasingly likely to be in it for the money rather than for fun, as years of economic turmoil force them to keep their heads down, collect their monthly paychecks, and fight for a promotion.
    — BYRyan Hogg, Fortune Europe, 26 June 2024
Definition of spoilsport
Noun
  • In the rush to create newer, faster, more monetizable technologies — and to enable the kind of corporate empires whose chief executives stood beside Donald Trump at his inauguration — privacy and safety regulations seemed like a bore.
    — Zeynep Tufekci, The Mercury News, 25 Feb. 2025
  • Again, the temperature rose far earlier than expected, and the KTB team was also surprised to find that the rock at this depth was not solid, and large amounts of fluid and gas were pouring into the bore hole to complicate the effort further.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 23 Feb. 2025
Definition of bore
Noun
  • Despite his literal change of heart, the Grinch continues to symbolize holiday party poopers everywhere.
    — Mike Miller, People.com, 19 Dec. 2024
  • Mosquitoes are, in fact, hellish little bugs that take the gold for summer’s biggest party poopers.
    — Katie Camero, SELF, 25 July 2024
Definition of party pooper
Noun
  • Misty is a bit of a wet blanket, so Callie drugs her with some cold medicine in her drink; soon, she’s passed out on the sofa.
    — Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 14 Feb. 2025
  • Assassin's Creed 3 After a whole trilogy led by the suave Ezio, Assassin's Creed III's Connor felt like a wet blanket.
    — John Mac Ghlionn, Newsweek, 13 Jan. 2025
Definition of wet blanket

Browse Nearby Words

grinch
See all Nearby Words

Podcast

Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP

Cite this Entry

“Grinch.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/grinch. Accessed 26 Mar. 2025.

Copy Citation

Share

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

The Difference Between 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?

Words You Always Have to Look Up

Democracy or Republic: What's the difference?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Top 10 Sophisticated Insults

Flower Etymologies For Your Spring Garden

More Words with Remarkable Origins

Terroir, Oenophile, & Magnum: Ten Words About Wine

8 Words for Lesser-Known Musical Instruments
See More

Popular Features

See More

How to Use Em Dashes (—), En Dashes (–) , and Hyphens (-)

Top 10 Sophisticated Insults

Flower Etymologies For Your Spring Garden
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Word Game Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
dog-in-disguise
Rhyme Disguise Quiz Pair up words that look different but sound alike.
See All