grief

/ɡriːf/

Definition

B2 very great sadness, especially at the death of someone: Her grief at her son's death was terrible. Newspapers should not intrude on people's private grief. newspaper pictures of grief-stricken relativesRemembering people who have diedSadness and regret come to grief › to suddenly fail in what you are doing, often because you have an accident: The Italian champion was in second position when he came to grief on the third lap.Failing and doing badly give sb grief informal › to criticize someone angrilyChastising and rebuking get grief informal › to be criticized angrily: I got a load of grief off Esther because I was ten minutes late.Disapproving and criticizingDamaging reputation

(Definition of grief noun from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)