Our greeves to redresse

Chaucer, Mother of God, 1. 41. The Scottes, desirous to be revenged of their olde greves, came to the erle with greate compaygnie. grieving. [Early mod. E. also greeve ; greven , grever , graver , F. grever = Pr. gre var , gravar , greviar = Sp. Pg. gravar = It. gra vare , gravare , burden, oppre , afflict, IMG:content-2671.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-2672.png:[blocks in formation] The peace between the French and us not values The cost that did conclude it. Shak ., Hen. VIII., i 1. grievous (grē'vus), a. [ grevous , grevus , grevous = Sp. Pg. It. gravoso, grievous, gravosus , also graviosus , equiv. to L. gravis , heavy, grievous: see graves and grief , n., grieve, v. Cf. gravous.] 1. Causing grief or sorrow; afflictive; hard to bear; oppre ive. And they bynde heuy burthens & greuous to be borne, & ley them on mennes shoulders. Bible of 1551, Mat. xxiii. 4. My memory faileth me, by meanes of my great and greeuous troubles. Webbe , Travels (ed. Arber), Epistle, p. 13. was. The first Tax he [William I.] laid upon his Subjects was in the first Year of his Reign, after his return out of Normandy: a grievous Tax, all Writers say, but none what it Baker , Chronicles, p. 26. 2. Inflicting or capable of inflicting pain or suffering; distre ing in act or use; fierce; savage. [Rare.] In their room, as they forewarn, Wolves shall succeed for teachers, grievous wolves. Milton , P. L., xii. 508. When he arose, he getteth him a grievous crab-tree cudgel, and goes down into the dungeon to them. Bunyan, Pilgrim's Progre , p. 174. 3. Atrocious; heinous; aggravated. It was a grievous fault; And grievously hath Cæsar answer'd it. Shak ., J. C., iii. 2. 4. Expre ing grief or affliction; full of grief: as, a grievous cry. This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians.