grizzle, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

grizzle v.

[despite the lack of cits., the v. is prob. contemporary with grizzle n. (1)]

to whine, to cry slightly but continually, usu. of a child.

1842		Catnach Ballad in Westminster Gaz. 7 Apr. (1899) 2/2: Useless is our grumbling, our grizzling, or mumbling [OED].
1867		E. Yates Forlorn Hope III 175: I went abroad, and remained grizzling and feeding on my own heart for months .
1872		M.E. Braddon To the Bitter End I 264: If the locket’s lost, it’s lost, [...] and there’s no use in grizzling about it.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 115: He was never done grizzling. If it wasn’t the weather it was the sheep. If it wasn’t the sheep it was the tucker, if not the tucker, the accommodation.
1964		F. Norman in Sun. Times 16 Aug. in Norman’s London (1969) 152: Now and then an actor who has incurred her displeasure will come and grizzle to me about the way he is being treated.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 369: I have a refreshing little sob and feel much the better for it. I grizzle and blub. I weep it out.

In compounds

grizzle-guts (n.) [gut n. (1a)]

a grumbler, a whinger.

1898		‘R. Andom’ Martha and I 66: She, Mrs. Tucklebury, is a ‘grizzle-guts’.
1947		F.F. Manfred This Is the Year 385: Wal, grizzle-guts, when you guys come around to test my cows, don’t expect nothin’ less than a pants full a lead fer yer trouble.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 196: I told myself that old Grizzle-guts would probably give me curry in his rag.
1968		(con. 1940s) G. Slatter Pagan Game (1969) 175: Grizzleguts matted me for coming back five days late.
1970		B. Fuller Nullarbor Story 65: I was expectin’ a cobber and he was a proper grizzle-guts.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 90: He may also be called [...] ‘grizzle-guts’.
2001		Business Review Weekly (Aus.) 23 182/2: It’s all right for these grumble-bums, grizzle-guts, and other assorted sulk merchants belly-aching about bed shortages and budget cuts, but clearly these bleaters have no idea how demanding some of these patients can be.
2009		J. Kelly Rock Me Gently [ebook] The other girls, who looked on crying as a weakness, ignored me. Ruth called me a grizzle-guts, telling me I'd end up with water on my brain.

In phrases

street grizzling (n.)

(UK tramp) the practice of singing pitiful songs to beg money; thus grizzler n., a singing tramp.

1932

F. Jennings Tramping with Tramps 128: Every tramp worthy of his name has [...] tried his hand at street-grizzling. [Ibid.] 134: Cambridge, he informed me, was a fine field for ‘grizzlers’.