GRMMMMPH.

n.  the sound of clearing one’s throat.

<Father ... was also silent—but more noisily so.  He kept clearing his throat, as if he was getting ready to say something.  It never got said.  What got said instead was GRMMMMPH and HMMHMMHMMHMM.  —Jules Feiffer, The Man in the Ceiling.>

grmmmph.

interj.  a sleepy, grumpy moan, as in the novel The Venetian Policeman by M.E. Rabb.


n.  “a combination of baby giraffes and okapis and grysbok all mixed up into one gracefully scattered Disney-Dr. Seuss thing” (Bruce Jay Friedman, describing the “wraithlike” qualities of Jean Shrimpton in Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos: Best Nonfiction).


n.  an incoherent mutter while one’s mouth is full, presumably meaning “good to make your acquaintance.”

<Janice actually tried to reply, and said something with her mouth full, which sounded like “Gmmmph.”  —Joe Jackson, A Cure for Gravity: A Musical Pilgrimage.>

grmmph.

n.  a dull comeback.

<That took some of the wind out of her sails, and all she could think to say was, “Grmmph.”  Not, she realized, her wittiest hour.  —Julia Quinn, Everything and the Moon.>

n.  a grumpy mumble; see also grmpf, grmph.

<“You made me swear I’d get you out of bed at half past five.”  “Mmmph, grmmph... didn’t mean it.”  —Julia Quinn, Minx.>

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