grisly
1 Americanadjective
-
causing a shudder or feeling of horror; horrible; gruesome.
a grisly murder.
-
formidable; grim.
a grisly countenance.
adjective
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of grisly
before 1150; Middle English; Old English grislīc horrible; cognate with Old High German grīsenlīh
Explanation
Grisly means disgusting and bloody, absolutely repulsive and horrible. There’s a wonderfully creepy movie about a man who suffers a grisly death at the hands of the grizzly bears he was studying. Do you like grisly horror movies? You might think that the reason the word grisly is so creepy, gruesome, and terrifying is somehow related to gristle, those really nasty tough parts you find in meat. But no, this is not the case. Old English grislic, the root of the word, means "horrible, dreadful." If something is gory and gross, it’s grisly.
Vocabulary lists containing grisly
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell
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Ender's Game
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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.
Burke’s family resisted being subpeoned to the grand jury and a court document from that legal battle revealed grisly details about what police found inside the Burke’s Tesla.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 16, 2026
England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Richard Thompson and chief executive Richard Gould have been in Sydney to see the grisly ending.
From BBC • Jan. 6, 2026
The grisly truth for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues believe he's not very good at his job.
From BBC • Jan. 4, 2026
The temple’s treasurer, desperate to avoid a scandal, dragoons Gabriel into finding out who’s behind these grisly deeds.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 5, 2025
He had no inkling that his adopted city would, indeed, witness the unleashing of the new science of genetics, but in its most grisly form in history.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
