grinch

[ grinch ]

noun

1. a person or thing that spoils or dampens the pleasure of others.

grinch

/ ɡrɪntʃ /

noun

1. informal.
   a person whose lack of enthusiasm or bad temper has a depressing effect on others

Word History and Origins

Origin of grinch¹

Coined by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel) in the children’s book How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1957), the Grinch being the central misanthropic character

Word History and Origins

Origin of grinch¹

C20: from a character in the 1957 children's book How the Grinch stole Christmas by Dr Seuss (1904–91), US writer and illustrator, whose full name was Theodor Seuss Geisel

Example Sentences

I don’t mean to be a grinch; Christmas and New Year’s are worthy observations, not media distractions, but could the timing be worse?

From Los Angeles Times

Southwest Airlines was the grinch that stole this year’s Christmas for travelers across the country.

From Washington Post

“Inflation is a grinch. Americans are trimming their holiday gift spending,” reported MarketWatch.com.

From Washington Times

Everywhere I turned, I saw decorations for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas all merged into a torture chamber bedecked with lighted trees, inflatable grinches, pumpkins, scarecrows and turkey fryers.

From Washington Post

A variant first detected in India, known as delta, exploded across the South before blanketing the country, only to be upstaged by the new and faster-moving omicron variant, which played the Christmas grinch.

From Washington Times