grouse

/graʊs/

/graʊs/

Other forms: groused; grousing; grouses

A grouse is a plump little bird. Don’t like birds? You can grouse, or complain, about them. The word grouse means both, but a grouse wouldn’t grouse because birds don’t whine.

The word grouse has been around since the 1500s, referring to a ground-dwelling game bird with feathery feet and legs. It’s a bird, so people hunt it, which is maybe how grouse came to mean “to complain” a few hundred years later. You might grouse about the amount of homework your social studies teacher assigns or about the terrible weather or about the high price of gas. People will grouse about pretty much anything!

Definitions of grouse

1. noun

   popular game bird having a plump body and feathered legs and feet
   types:

   black grouse

   grouse of which the male is bluish-black

   ptarmigan

   large Arctic and subarctic grouse with feathered feet and usually white winter plumage

   Tetrao urogallus, capercaillie, capercailzie, horse of the wood

   large black Old World grouse

   Canachites canadensis, spruce grouse

   North American grouse that feeds on evergreen buds and needles

   Centrocercus urophasianus, sage grouse, sage hen

   large grouse of sagebrush regions of North America

   Bonasa umbellus, partridge, ruffed grouse

   valued as a game bird in eastern United States and Canada

   Pedioecetes phasianellus, sharp-tailed grouse, sprig tail, sprigtail

   large grouse of prairies and open forests of western North America

   prairie chicken, prairie fowl, prairie grouse

   brown mottled North American grouse of western prairies

   European black grouse, Lyrurus tetrix, heathfowl

   large northern European grouse that is black with a lyre-shaped tail

   Asian black grouse, Lyrurus mlokosiewiczi

   a black grouse of western Asia

   black cock, blackcock

   male black grouse

   gray hen, grayhen, grey hen, greyhen, heath hen

   female black grouse

   Lagopus scoticus, moor-bird, moorbird, moorfowl, moorgame, red grouse

   reddish-brown grouse of upland moors of Great Britain

   Tympanuchus cupido, greater prairie chicken

   the most common variety of prairie chicken

   Tympanuchus pallidicinctus, lesser prairie chicken

   a smaller prairie chicken of western Texas

   Tympanuchus cupido cupido, heath hen

   extinct prairie chicken

   type of:

   game bird

   any bird (as grouse or pheasant) that is hunted for sport
2. noun

   flesh of any of various grouse of the family Tetraonidae; usually roasted; flesh too dry to broil
   type of:

   wildfowl

   flesh of any of a number of wild game birds suitable for food
3. verb

   hunt grouse
   type of:

   fowl

   hunt fowl in the forest
4. verb

   complain
   synonyms: beef, bellyache, bitch, crab, gripe, holler, squawk

   type of:

   complain, kick, kvetch, plain, quetch, sound off

   express complaints, discontent, displeasure, or unhappiness