Word of the Day

: December 25, 2007

grinch

noun GRINCH

What It Means

: killjoy, spoilsport

grinch in Context

Our team had improved significantly over the past week, but the grinches were still pointing out that we were more than ten games out of first place.

Did You Know?

When Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote the children's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1957, he probably had no idea that in 20 years "grinch" would enter the general lexicon of English. Like Charles Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge (whose name has become synonymous with "miser"), the Grinch changes his ways by the story's end, but it's the unreformed character who "hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!" who sticks in our minds. The ill-natured Grinch, with his heart "two sizes too small," provides us with a lively symbol of someone we love to hate, and his name has thus come to refer to any disgruntled grump who ruins the pleasure of others.