The whole process could have been a joyful PR interlude, replacing the current grind of grimness.
This longing for grimness actually has its own portmanteau word, ostalgie.
She smiled, but there was a hint of grimness in the bending of her lips.
Even Nellie, child that she was, understood the grimness of the battle before them.
No man with a gleam of humour could have kept a mask of grimness.
"Don't worry: I'm going to tell you," she said, her grimness not relaxed.
Peter Blood considered him with a grimness that increased his panic.
“Four years, perhaps,” returned Nasmyth, with a trace of grimness.
The grimness of the Moon was eating into the courage of Grantline's men.
Mr. Wells had not lost any of his grimness when he opened it.
Old English grimm "fierce, cruel, savage, dire, painful," from Proto-Germanic *grimmaz (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old High German, German grimm, Old Norse grimmr, Swedish grym "fierce, furious"), from PIE *ghrem- "angry," perhaps imitative of the sound of rumbling thunder (cf. Greek khremizein "to neigh," Old Church Slavonic vuzgrimeti "to thunder," Russian gremet' "thunder").
A weaker word now than once it was; sense of "dreary, gloomy" first recorded late 12c. It also had a verb form in Old English, grimman (class III strong verb; past tense gramm, p.p. grummen). Old English also had a noun, grima "goblin, specter," perhaps also a proper name or attribute-name of a god, hence its appearance as an element in place names.
Grim reaper as a figurative way to say "death" is attested by 1847 (the association of grim and death goes back at least to 17c.). A Middle English expression for "have recourse to harsh measures" was to wend the grim tooth (early 13c.).
"spectre, bogey, haunting spirit," 1620s, from grim (adj.).
