Grig, n.
n. [Cf. L. Ger. kricke, Sw. kräcka, a wild little duck.]
Sense 1. The sand-eel; a small eel of lively and incessant motion. Walton.
Sense 2. Heath.
Some great mosses in Lancashire . . . that for the present yield little or no profit, save some grig or heath for sheep. Aubrey.
Sense 3. A cricket. [Prov. Eng.] Halliwell.
☞ As merry as a grig, a saying supposed by some to have had its origin in the lively motions of the eel called grig; but more probably a corruption of “As merry as a Greek,” the Greeks being proverbially spoken of by the Romans as fond of good living and free potations; hence, as being jovial fellows. Nares.