Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To utter a deep guttural sound, as a hog does.
  • intransitive verb To utter a sound similar to a grunt, as in disgust.
  • intransitive verb To utter or express with a deep guttural sound.
  • noun A deep guttural sound.
  • noun Any of various chiefly tropical marine fishes of the family Haemulidae that produce a grunting sound by rubbing together their pharyngeal teeth.
  • noun Slang An infantryman in the US military, especially in the Vietnam War.
  • noun Slang One who performs routine or mundane tasks.
  • noun New England A dessert made by stewing fruit topped with pieces of biscuit dough, which steam as the fruit cooks.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make a guttural noise, as a hog; also, to utter short or broken groans, as from eagerness or over-exertion.
  • noun A deep guttural sound, as that made by a hog.
  • noun A fish of the family Hæmulonidæ, as those of the genera Hœmulon and Orthopristis: so called from the noise they make when hauled out of the water. Also called pig-fish and growler for the same reason. See redmouth.
  • noun Among the various fishes of the genus Hæmulon and family Hæmulidæ, so named, are the following:

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make a deep, short noise, as a hog; to utter a short groan or a deep guttural sound.
  • transitive verb (Zoöl.) the yak.
  • noun A deep, guttural sound, as of a hog.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of American food fishes, of the genus Hæmulon, allied to the snappers, as, the black grunt (A. Plumieri), and the redmouth grunt (H. aurolineatus), of the Southern United States; -- also applied to allied species of the genera Pomadasys, Orthopristis, and Pristopoma. Called also pigfish, squirrel fish, and grunter; -- so called from the noise it makes when taken.
  • noun slang A U. S. infantryman; -- used especially of those fighting in the war in Vietnam.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A short, snorting sound, often to show disapproval, or used as a reply when one is reluctant to speak.
  • noun The snorting cry of a pig.
  • noun A family of Perciformes fish of the family Haemulidae
  • noun Army and United States Marine Corps slang An infantry soldier. (From the sound he presumably makes when shouldering a pack before starting a road march.)
  • verb intransitive Of a person: To make a grunt or grunts.
  • verb intransitive Of a pig: To make a grunt or grunts.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun medium-sized tropical marine food fishes that utter grunting sounds when caught
  • noun an unskilled or low-ranking soldier or other worker
  • noun the short low gruff noise of the kind made by hogs
  • verb issue a grunting, low, animal-like noise

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English grunten, from Old English grunnettan; probably akin to grunnian, to make a loud noise, grunt, of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English grunten, from Old English grunnettan ("to grunt"), from Proto-Germanic *grunnatjanan (“to grunt”), frequentative of Proto-Germanic *grunnōnan (“to grunt”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrun- (“to shout”). Cognate with German grunzen ("to grunt"), Danish grynte ("to grunt").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Generic Respondent and Undertaker of Nonstandard Tasks.

    November 9, 2008

  • “A spoon pie, with biscuit dough on top of stewed fruit, which is steamed, not baked”

    Ochef.com, Cobbler, Crisp, Crumble, Grunt, Slump—You Get the Picture

    April 6, 2010

  • New England: A dessert made by stewing fruit topped with pieces of biscuit dough, which steam as the fruit cooks.

    January 30, 2013