grinch -- \GRINCH\ -- (noun)
: killjoy, spoilsport
Example sentence:
"Grant remains Wall Street's most eloquent Grinch. He tells
anyone who asks ... that it is only a matter of time before the
bubble bursts." (Adam Platt, _The New Yorker_, January 13, 1997)
Did you know?
When Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote
the children's book _How the Grinch Stole Christmas_ in 1957,
he probably had no idea that in 20 years "grinch" would enter
the general lexicon of English. Like Charles Dickens' Ebenezer
Scrooge (whose name has become synonymous with "miser"), the Grinch
changes his ways by the story's end, but it's the unreformed
character who "hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!" who
sticks in our minds. The ill-natured Grinch, with his heart "two
sizes too small," provides us with a lively symbol of someone we
love to hate, and his name has thus come to refer to any disgruntled
grump who ruins the pleasure of others.