Other forms: grudges, grudging
A grudge is an old wrong you refuse to put down. Bear a grudge, hold a grudge, nurse a grudge.
The verbs are bear, hold and nurse, and all three suggest carrying it deliberately. A grudge match is a contest with old bad feeling behind it. As a verb, to grudge somebody something is to resent their having it, and begrudge is the commoner form. Note grudging, meaning given unwillingly — grudging respect, a grudging apology — which is a very useful adjective.
1noungrudgeAn old wrong you refuse to let go of.
“She bore that grudge for about thirty years.”
2verbresentTo resent somebody having something.
“Nobody grudges him the money after all that.”
grudge is a held resentment.
Old French grouchier meant to grumble or murmur. Grudge and grouch are the same word, one kept and one worn down, and both began as complaining under the breath.
Old French
grouchier
Middle English
grucchen
an unknown language
grutch
English, today
grudge
Built from
From an unknown language grutch, from Middle English grucchen, from Old French grouchier, from gem -. A variant of grutch (mid 15th-century, younger than begrudge), from Middle English grucchen (“to murmur, complain, feel envy, begrudge”), from Old French grouchier, groucier (“to murmur, grumble”), of gem - origin, probably ultimately imitative of the sound. Akin to Middle High German grogezen (“to howl, wail”), German grocken (“to croak”). Compare also Old Norse krytja (“to murmur”), Old High German grunzen (“to grunt”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA