gruntled
English
WOTD – 5 July 2012
Etymology 1
See gruntle
Adjective
gruntled (comparative more gruntled, superlative most gruntled)
- (obsolete) Grunted.
- 1909, Mary Austin, Lost Borders, page 172:
- Along about the time Orion's sword sloped down the west, Chabot heard their gruntled noises and the scurry of the flock.
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Etymology 2
Back-formation from disgruntled (c. 1925).[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈɡɹʌntl̩d/
Audio (UK) (file)
Adjective
gruntled (comparative more gruntled, superlative most gruntled)
- (humorous) Satisfied, pleased, contented. [from 1930s]
- Antonym: disgruntled
- 1938, P. G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters:
- He spoke with a certain what-is-it in his voice, and I could see that, if not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.
- 1994 July 25, Jack Winter, “How I met my wife”, in The New Yorker:
- It had been a rough day, so when I walked into the party I was very chalant, despite my efforts to appear gruntled and consolate.
- 1996 March 13, Ira Berkow, "Sports of The Times: A Case For Fill-In Coaches," New York Times (retrieved 5 July 2012):
- After all, a number of players were disgruntled, and a few more were gruntled.
- 2009 March 18, Ian O'Doherty, "Tyra—the cause of all evil," Irish Independent (retrieved 5 July 2012):
- [S]he was rumoured to be rather less than gruntled' when The Soups Joel McHale said: "Here's Ryan Seacrest and Tyra Banks playing Lady and the Tramp ... You figure out which is which."
- 2011, Jay Shepherd, “Gruntled Employees”, in Firing at Will: A Manager's Guide (Business), Apress, →ISBN, page 228:
- Gruntled employees are happy employees. Gruntled employees like their coworkers. … gruntled employees like their employers. … So how do you keep your employees gruntled?
Further reading
- gruntled at OneLook Dictionary Search
- Michael Quinion (1996–2023), “Disgruntled and gruntled”, in World Wide Words.
References
- “gruntled”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.