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Gruff   /grəf/   Listen
Gruff

adjective
(compar. gruffer; superl. gruffest)
1.
Brusque and surly and forbidding.  Synonyms: crusty, curmudgeonly, ill-humored, ill-humoured.  "A crusty old man" , "His curmudgeonly temper" , "Gruff manner" , "A gruff reply"
2.
Deep and harsh sounding as if from shouting or illness or emotion.  Synonyms: hoarse, husky.  "The dog's gruff barking" , "Hoarse cries" , "Makes all the instruments sound powerful but husky"



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"Gruff" Quotes from Famous Books



... bayed at the moon as dogs do, And vented his gruff bow-wows, As he tagged my heels in the good old times When we went ...
— The Gray Goose's Story • Amy Prentice

... English prose, I went this morning to breakfast at Holland House. The day was fine, and I arrived at twenty minutes after ten. After I had lounged a short time in the dining-room, I heard a gruff good-natured voice asking, "Where is Mr. Macaulay? Where have you put him?" and in his arm-chair Lord Holland was wheeled in. He took me round the apartments, he riding and I walking. He gave me the history of the most remarkable portraits in the library, where there is, by the bye, one of the ...
— Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay • George Otto Trevelyan

... however, he saw he was going to be punished, he would change his tone to a shrill, threatening note, showing his teeth, and trying to intimidate. He had quite an extensive vocabulary of sounds, varying from a gruff bark to a shrill whistle; and we could tell by them, without seeing him, when it was he was hungry, eating, frightened, or menacing; doubtless, one of his own species would have understood various minor ...
— The Naturalist in Nicaragua • Thomas Belt

... after explaining in his gruff way that the huts were doubtless filthy and vermin-ridden, spread Jane's blankets on the ground for her, and at a little distance unrolled his own and lay down ...
— The Beasts of Tarzan • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... sorry." The German's tone, gruff though it was, was by no means unkindly. "Orders, however—I have no choice. Doubtless you will be allowed to return as soon as the colonel has ...
— The Boy Scouts In Russia • John Blaine


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