gruff adj

1 brusque and surly and forbidding; "crusty remarks"; "a crusty old man"; "his curmudgeonly temper"; "gruff manner"; "a gruff reply" [syn: crusty, curmudgeonly, ill-humored, ill-humoured]

2 deep and harsh sounding as if from shouting or illness or emotion; "gruff voices"; "the dog's gruff barking"; "hoarse cries"; "makes all the instruments sound powerful but husky"- Virgil Thomson [syn: hoarse, husky]

English

Etymology

grof "coarse."

Pronunciation

• /gɹʌf/, /grVf/
• Rhymes: -ʌf

Adjective

gruff

1. To have a rough, surly, or harsh nature.
2. Hoarse voiced.

Derived terms

• gruffly
• gruffness

Translations

• Icelandic: hás m|f, hást ; rámur , rám , rámt

Gruff's are the Servants of The Summer Faire Court in Jim Butchers "the Dresden Files" (can be seen on the Sci-Fi channel). They are described as giant goats which walk on two legs and just as in the fairy tale "the Three Billy Goats Gruff" there are hundreds of brothers and theres always a bigger one. They are the guard of Queen Titania and follow her will without question.

abrupt, acerb, acid, acrimonious, aggressive, bad-tempered, bearish, beastly, biting, bluff, blunt, boorish, brash, brassy, brazen, brusque, cantankerous, caustic, cavalier, choked, churlish, coarse, crabbed, crabby, cracked, croaking, croaky, cross, crotchety, crusty, curt, cutting, deep, dour, dry, fierce, grouchy, growling, grumbling, grumbly, grumpish, grumpy, guttural, harsh, harsh-sounding, hoarse, husky, ill-humored, ill-natured, irascible, irritable, low, metallic, morose, peevish, petulant, querulous, ragged, rasping, raucid, raucous, rough, roupy, rude, saturnine, severe, sharp, short, short-tempered, snippety, snippy, sour, squawking, squawky, stertorous, stinging, strangled, sulky, sullen, surly, testy, thick, throaty, tinny, truculent, uncivil