Meaning
To accept something unpleasant, painful, or unwelcome with forced good humour and without complaining, because there is no realistic way to avoid it. Usually said of situations that simply must be endured. Informal and conversational. Informal; implies the hardship is unavoidable and complaint pointless. Regional use: General English.
Origin
Christine Ammer's Dictionary of Cliches (via The Free Dictionary) records an early appearance in William Hickey's Memoirs describing the year 1775, glossed there as 'an expression used by sailors after a long continuance of bad weather', which suggests a nautical colloquial origin in the late eighteenth century. Ammer also notes that the naturalist Erasmus Darwin, in Zoonomia (1794), quotes 'to grin and abide' as an older proverb with the same sense, so the sentiment predates the modern wording. The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins dates the modern form to the early nineteenth century. Collins lists it as an informal British and American idiom. The documented history is therefore: an older 'grin and abide' proverb, a first recorded 'grin and bear it' linked to 1775 sailors' speech, and standardisation during the nineteenth century.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- grin and abide it
- grinned and bore it
- grinning and bearing it
- just grin and bear it
Usage Examples
- The office will be freezing until the boiler is repaired, so we will just have to grin and bear it.
- She hated the long commute but grinned and bore it for the sake of the higher salary.
- If the referee's decision stands, the players will have to grin and bear it.