to give grief
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
dar la lata
- My boss tends to give grief to anyone who makes a small mistake.
Examples
-
If you give grief to your siblings all the time, they'll start avoiding you.
-
Why do you always give grief to your friend for being late?
-
Don't give grief to your sister!
-
My boss always gives grief about my reports.
-
If you give grief to your siblings all the time, they'll start avoiding you.
-
My boss tends to give grief to anyone who makes a small mistake.
-
Why do you always give grief to your friend for being late?
Synonyms
90
3.9
Make someone feel bad by criticizing or teasing them
37
8.1
To scold someone very strongly for something they did
1
8.1
To scold or punish someone angrily for something they did wrong
1
9.9
To make someone very annoyed or angry
1
8.0
To make someone feel unhappy or annoyed
1
8.9
To cause someone pain or deep sadness
Antonyms
How Annoying
- NSFW
107
7.2
302
4.0
- Informal
78
2.9
246
1.0
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
give + grief
Knowing 'give' (to cause or provide) and 'grief' (sorrow/trouble) would allow a B1 learner to infer a literal meaning like 'cause someone sorrow or problems', so there is a clear compositional link. However the specific gaming sense — deliberate harassment/sabotage ('griefing') — is specialized slang/jargon and not fully predictable from the constituents, so the expression is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The phrase give grief comes from the simple image of handing someone pain or trouble: to give someone grief is like giving them worry or sorrow. So it means 'to cause someone annoyance, distress, or trouble'.