gristly
Americanadjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of gristly
A Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; see origin at gristle, -y 1
Explanation
Gristly means rubbery or full of cartilage. The hardest part of your trip to rural China might be graciously accepting and attempting to chew the gristly meat your hosts offer you. The Old English word that spawned gristly is gristle, literally meaning "cartilage." When meat in particular is hard to chew, it's gristly. This adjective sounds like grisly (no t), which describes something that is horrifying. Although it can also be horrifying, save gristly to describe that chewy mystery meat you try and choke down to be polite.
Vocabulary lists containing gristly
Commonly Confused Words, List 3
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Commonly Confused Words, List 5
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Commonly Confused Words, List 11
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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:
Yet with a little sugar, and a simmering dembow beat, Towers’ gristly timbre elasticized into a warm, caramelized tone all his own.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2023
The patty is tasteless and perhaps a little gristly.
From Salon ● May 14, 2022
The reason for sketching this process out in such gristly, unpleasant detail is that there remains a significant body of opinion that is convinced people put themselves through all this for a laugh.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 23, 2021
Meat skewers, from pork belly to beef, were gristly, lacking sauce or enough MSG to help them go down easy.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2019
The dog stops beside it at the order counter, where an older woman in a green apron tosses a gristly piece of meat into his mouth.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
And it had something beautiful too, Brazil’s team of all the No 10s broken like a butterfly on a wheel by the gristlier, more industrial football of Italy’s champions-in-waiting.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 8, 2020
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.
