grim
Americanadjective
-
stern and admitting of no appeasement or compromise.
grim determination; grim necessity.
- Synonyms:
- unyielding, harsh
- Antonyms:
- lenient
-
of a sinister or ghastly character.
a grim joke.
- Antonyms:
- attractive
-
having a harsh, surly, forbidding, or morbid air.
a grim man but a just one; a grim countenance.
- Antonyms:
- gentle
-
fierce, savage, or cruel.
War is a grim business.
-
unpleasant or repellant.
Scrubbing toilets is a grim task that no one likes doing.
adjective
-
stern; resolute
grim determination
-
harsh or formidable in manner or appearance
-
harshly ironic or sinister
grim laughter
-
cruel, severe, or ghastly
a grim accident
-
archaic fierce
a grim warrior
-
informal unpleasant; disagreeable
-
to hold very firmly or resolutely
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of grim
First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English; cognate with Old Saxon, Old High German grimm, Old Norse grimmr
Explanation
Things that are gloomy, stark, ghastly, and somber are grim. Sunshine, puppies, and rainbows are not grim; zombies, reapers, and mummies are grim. Less scary things like drizzly, foggy days can also be called grim. Two famous uses of the adjective grim are the Grim Reaper and Grimm's Fairy Tales. Mr. Reaper shows up in movies and books wearing a long, hooded black cape and carrying a scythe, or long-handled blade used, in less grim circumstances, for mowing grass and reaping grain: he represents death. The real-life German brothers wrote some bone-chilling tales under their own name, Grimm, meaning "cruel, fierce," which is related to the English word grim. Modern grim things include crime-drama images of dead bodies and characters in horror movies.
Vocabulary lists containing grim
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 4
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The New SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words
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More Negative Words to Describe a Person
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“It’s grim and it’s hard. There are jobs, but we have a large amount of extremely qualified people competing for every level of job,” Urquhart said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
Economic forecasts for the coming months continue to be grim as fighting in the Middle East intensifies.
From Salon ● Sep. 19, 2026
Six successive home defeats in the league equals a grim club record dating back to 1920.
From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026
The news was grim: By the time the indebted workers reached their 40s, their median account balances were about 45% less than those who didn’t borrow for higher education.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
“I think they would,” came from under the hat, in a grim tone, quite as touching as a broken one.
From "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott
Reports David has heard from clients in Cameroon are even grimmer: the IOM has refused to facilitate medical care for some detainees, the lawyer said.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
It doesn’t even matter that Balogun’s red card for mashing a Bosnia and Herzegovina opponent’s leg was a bit much—an overreaction to a bang-bang play that looked grimmer in slow-motion.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Each morning that Venezuelans wake to the aftermath of the dual earthquakes, it is a little darker, a little grimmer.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
Disney’s latest animated film, “Zootopia 2,” a sequel to its 2016 box-office juggernaut, isn’t exactly an adult political drama, though the stakes certainly feel grimmer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 25, 2025
They were both silent, but the Professor started and quivered; his face, however, grew grimmer and sterner still.
From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker
The grimmest possibility for the filmmaking community is that Warner would become a production label under Paramount, like the former 20th Century Fox studio has become at Disney.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2025
It’s a showdown on the edge of an abyss or, from a blackly comic point of view, the grimmest edition ever of that old surprise-reunion show “This Is Your Life.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2025
Behind the scenes, his producers eagerly exploited the grimmest episodes of vulnerable people’s lives, never disabusing them of the false assumption that appearing on “Springer” would somehow help them.
From Salon ● Jan. 7, 2025
For now, however, the grimmest of eventualities may have been avoided—all thanks to a mixture of luck and Icelandic proactivity.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 19, 2023
Penelope smiled, then beamed, then laughed aloud, for even the grimmest Giddy-Yap, Rainbow! book had joy to spare.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
