gree

See also: gréé and grée

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹiː/

Etymology 1

From Old French gré, from Latin gradum (“step”). Compare degree, grade.

Noun

gree (plural grees)

1. (obsolete) One of a flight of steps.
   • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 5, in Dracula^[1]:

     "My grand-daughter doesn't like to be kept waitin' when the tea is ready, for it takes me time to crammle aboon the grees, for there be a many of 'em, and miss, I lack belly-timber sairly by the clock."

2. (obsolete) A stage in a process; a degree of rank or station.
   • Edmund Spenser (c.1552–1599)

     He is a shepherd great in gree.

3. (now Scotland) Pre-eminence; victory or superiority in combat (hence also, the prize for winning a combat).
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter lxxj, in Le Morte Darthur, book X

     And thenne the kynge lete blowe to lodgynge / and by cause sir Palomydes beganne fyrste / and neuer he went nor rode oute of the feld to repose / but euer was doynge merueyllously wel outher on foote or on horsbak / and lengest durynge Kynge Arthur and alle the kynges gaf sir Palomydes the honour and the gree as for that daye

4. (geometry, obsolete) A degree.

Etymology 2

From (pre-reform) Scottish Gaelic gré, from Old Scottish Gaelic gray.

Noun

gree (plural grees)

1. (now Scotland) Pre-eminence; victory or superiority in combat (hence also, the prize for winning a combat).
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book X:

     bycause Sir Palomydes beganne fyrste, and never he wente nor rode oute of the fylde to repose hym, but ever he was doynge on horsebak othir on foote, and lengest durynge, Kynge Arthure and all the kynges gaff Sir Palomydes the honoure and the gre as for that day.

Etymology 3

From Old French gré (“pleasure, goodwill”), from Latin gratum, a noun use of the neuter of gratus (“pleasing”).

Noun

gree (plural grees)

1. (archaic) Pleasure, goodwill, satisfaction.
   • Late 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer, The Man of Law's Tale:

     And notified is þurȝout þe toun / Þat every wiȝt, wiþ greet devocioun, / Sholde preyen Crist þat he þis mariage / Recyve in gree and spede þis viage.

   • Fairfax

     Accept in gree, my lord, the words I spoke.

   • 1885, Sir Richard Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, volume 1:

     When it was the Second Night, said Dunyazad to her sister Shahrazad, "O my sister, finish for us that story of the Merchant and the Jinni;" and she answered "With joy and goodly gree, if the King permit me."

Etymology 4

Verb

gree (third-person singular simple present grees, present participle greeing, simple past and past participle greed)

1. (obsolete) To agree.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Fuller to this entry?)

Anagrams

• Geer, geer