What does begrudged mean?
'Begrudged' is the past tense and past participle of the verb 'begrudge', meaning either to envy someone else's possession or good fortune, or to part with something reluctantly and with resentment. A person who begrudges a friend's success feels a quiet sting at that friend's happiness; an employer who begrudged a pay rise hands over the money but resents doing so. The word appears most often in negative and contrastive constructions — 'he begrudged them nothing' signals genuine generosity precisely by denying the envious impulse. Its connotations are unambiguously unpleasant: envy, sourness, and reluctance, which gives the word a slightly formal, literary flavour well suited to narrative and reflective writing. Derived forms include 'begrudging' and the adverb 'begrudgingly', both common in everyday speech for anything done with visible reluctance.
verbTo envy someone's possession or enjoyment of something, or to give or allow it reluctantly and resentfully.
- To envy another person's possession, success, or enjoyment of something.
- To give, grant, or spend something reluctantly and with resentment.
"She begrudged her rival every ounce of praise the judges heaped upon her."
"He never begrudged his sister the attention their parents lavished on her."
"The firm begrudged every penny spent on staff training, even as profits soared."
To begrudge isn't just to envy — it's to hand over what you owe while silently seething about every bit of it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of begrudged
'Begrudged' derives from the verb 'begrudge', formed in Middle English from the prefix 'be-' plus 'grucchen', meaning to murmur or complain, itself borrowed from Old French 'grousser' or 'grouchier'. The underlying sense is of low muttering discontent, which over time shifted to denote envy and reluctant giving. The root also yields the modern English nouns 'grudge' and 'grouch', making these its closest living relatives.
Related word forms
How begrudged is actually used
'Begrudged' carries a strongly negative, somewhat formal or literary tone; it often appears in constructions like 'she begrudged him nothing' to emphasise generosity by contrast. It is typically used of feelings toward other people rather than abstract situations.
Easily confused with begrudged
A grudge is a noun denoting a lasting feeling of resentment, while 'begrudged' is a verb describing the act of envying something or giving it reluctantly.