gruesome
or grew·some
[groo-suh m]
adjective
causing great horror; horribly repugnant; grisly: the site of a gruesome murder.
full of or causing problems; distressing: a gruesome day at the office.
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terrifying, horrid, horrific, macabre, morbid, terrible, appalling, frightful, ugly, grisly, ghastly, horrendous, weird, shocking, hideous, grim, lurid, horrifying, abominable, fearful
Nearby words
Origin of gruesome
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for gruesome
gruesome
adjective
Word Origin for gruesome
C16: originally Northern English and Scottish; see grue, -some 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
gruesome
1560s, with -some (1) + Middle English gruen "feel horror, shudder" (c.1300); not recorded in Old English or Norse, possibly from Middle Dutch gruwen or Middle Low German gruwen "shudder with fear" (cf. German grausam "cruel"), or from a Scandinavian source (cf. Danish grusom "cruel," grue "to dread," though others hold that these are Low German loan-words). One of the many Scottish words popularized in England by Scott's novels.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper