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3. grievance

grievance

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air (one's) grievances

To express one's dissatisfaction. The employees used the meeting to air their grievances about their salaries and working conditions.

See also: air, grievance

air one's grievances

Fig. to complain; to make a public complaint. I know how you feel, John, but it isn't necessary to air your grievances over and over.

See also: air, grievance

air one's grievances

Complain publicly, as in Jane was afraid to complain at work but freely aired her grievances at home. This figurative exposure to the open air is far from new; to air one's opinions or ideas dates from the early 1800s, and the precise idiom appears in James Joyce's Ulysses (1922).

See also: air, grievance