▪ I. † griph Obs.
In 7 gryphe; also in L. form griphus.
[ad. L. grīphus, a. Gr. γρῖϕος fishing-basket, creel; dark saying, riddle. Cf. F. griphe.]
A puzzling question; a riddle, enigma.
| a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. iv. 71 That old gryphe or riddle of the Peripatetic school. a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams ii. (1692) 132 No Law or Practice directs the Subject to bring such Gryphes and Oracles, but plain, litteral, grammatical Notions of Libels to a Justice of Peace. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. §21. 388 That seemingly monstrous Paradox or puzzling Griphus of theirs [the Pythagoreans] that ‘Numbers were the Causes and Principles of all things’. 1796 Pegge Anonym. (1809) 418 A griphus or ænigma adduced by Tollius in his edition of Ausonius. |
▪ II. griph(e
variant of gryph, vulture. Obs.