Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GRIPE, n.

1. Grasp; seizure; fast hold with the hand or paw, or with the arms. Shak. Dryden.
2. Squeeze; pressure. Dryden.
3. Oppression; cruel exactions. Shak.
4. Affliction; pinching distress; as, the gripe of poverty.
5. In seamen's language, the fore-foot or piece of timber which terminates the keel at the fore-end. Mar. Dict.
6. Gripes, in the plural, pain in the intestines of the character of that which accompanies a lax. This sort of pain in the intestines is technically called tormina.
7. Gripes, in seamen's language, an assemblage of ropes, dead-eyes and hooks, fastened to ring-bolts in the deck secure the boats. Mar. Dict.