Grunt

[gruhnt] /grʌnt/

verb (used without object)
1.
to utter the deep, guttural sound characteristic of a hog.
2.
to utter a similar sound.
3.
to grumble, as in discontent.
verb (used with object)
4.
to express with a grunt.
noun
5.
a sound of grunting.
6.
New England Cookery. a dessert, typically of cherries, peaches, or apples sweetened and spiced, and topped with biscuit dough.
7.
any food fish of the family Pomadasyidae (Haemulidae), found chiefly in tropical and subtropical seas, that emits grunting sounds.
8.
Slang. a soldier, especially an infantryman.
9.
Slang. a common or unskilled worker; laborer.
/ɡrʌnt/
verb
1.
(intransitive) (esp of pigs and some other animals) to emit a low short gruff noise
2.
(when transitive, may take a clause as object) to express something gruffly: he grunted his answer
noun
3.
the characteristic low short gruff noise of pigs, etc, or a similar sound, as of disgust
4.
any of various mainly tropical marine sciaenid fishes, such as Haemulon macrostomum (Spanish grunt), that utter a grunting sound when caught
5.
(US, slang) an infantry soldier or US Marine, esp in the Vietnam War
v.

Old English grunnettan “to grunt,” frequentative of grunian “to grunt,” probably imitative (cf. Danish grynte, Old High German grunnizon, German grunzen “to grunt,” Latin grunnire “to grunt”). Related: Grunted; grunting.
n.

1550s, from grunt (v.); as a type of fish, from 1713; meaning “infantry soldier” emerged in U.S. military slang during Vietnam War (first recorded in print 1969); used since 1900 of various low-level workers. Grunt work first recorded 1977.

noun

Related Terms

cluck and grunt