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
- grisliness noun
Etymology
Origin of grisly
before 1150; Middle English; Old English grislīc horrible; cognate with Old High German grīsenlīh
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.
Even in 1842, Charles Dickens noticed the near-ubiquity of guns in America, describing the “grisly assortment of guns and knives” Americans carried and pointing out how quickly fatal disputes developed.
From Salon
It took rescuers 17 days to make contact with the buried men, and when they did everyone expected to find a grisly scene of madness and death.
“Elizabeth Short’s death was notorious and grisly,” Mann says.
From Los Angeles Times
It’s not as grisly, but it’s equally cruel.
From Los Angeles Times
He glanced behind him, where even mad, even feet away from a grisly death at the hands of the MGM lion, Clara was beautiful enough to momentarily stop his heart.
From Literature
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.
