Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) any cheating gamester, spec. the member of a team who makes bets with the victim.

1586		G. Whetstone Mirrour for Magestrates of Citties (2nd edn) H2: He (perhaps) in a Greene Thycket getteth a Masked face, a Pystoll, and a Whypcorde, and have Inheritance in the Ile of Snatch: Aduentreth to Cape Gripe: I know not by what conning shiftes.
1591		Greene Second Part of Conny-Catching in Grosart (1881–3) X 83: Amongst these are certaine old sokers, which are lookers on, and listen for bets, either euen or odde, and these are called grypes.
1608		Dekker Belman of London F3: I take six to one saies the Gripe, I lay it cryes the Vincent, and so they make a bet of six crownes, shillings, or pence, as the Vincent is of ability to lay.

2. (UK Und., also gripe-all, gripe-man-all, gripe-money, griper) a miser.

1645		Recreation for Ingenious Head-peeces (3rd) Epigram No. 4: Gripe keeps his coin well, and his heaps are great.
1658		Mennis & Smith ‘On Usuring Gripe’ Epigrams in Facetiae II (1817) 99: Gripe feels no lameness of his knotty gout, His money travell for him in and out.
1696		Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk V 543: The cups or scales of the balance were a pair of velvet pouches; the one full of bullion [...] I am of the opinion it was the true effigies of Justice Gripe-men-all.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Gripe or Griper, an old Covetous Wretch: also a Banker, Money Scrivener, or Usurer.
1721		Penkethman’s Jests 53: Old Gripeall sending his Son to court a Lady of Fortune.
1755		Oxford Jrnl 27 Sept. 2/2: Sir Giles Gripe assures him he is no Miser, though he starves himself and lends Money at Twenty per cent.
1765		A. Tucker Light of Nature I (1831) 312: As old Gripe said to his son, my boy get money.
1786		Mr Thompson Female Amazon 6: The report of her beauty had now reached the ears of a certain libidinous old gentleman [...] most famous for oeconomy [...] Fanny lived with that son of Gripus.
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 30: I was called by a miser in wonderful trouble, / His head swam so much that poor Gripe-all saw double.
1888		Reynold’s Newspaper 29 July n.p.: Is there on earth no greater enemy [...] than a gripe-money and usurer?
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

3. (Irish) a hand.

c.1790		‘De Kilmainham Minit’ in Luke Caffrey’s Gost 5: When to see Luke’s last gig we agreed, / We tip’d him our Gripes in a Tangle.
1855		W.G. Simms Forayers 380: I went down under his fist like a great bullock under the axe of a butcher. He’s a most powerful fellow in the gripe.