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.
Mostly because they didn’t seem bothered by his grisly smile.
From Literature
"I did think it was a bit grisly but I was mostly intrigued," he says.
From BBC
The setup of this animated film sounds like a gag: A Viking, a ninja and a World War II pilot are thrown into a Predator movie that plays like a grisly triptych.
From Los Angeles Times
As if the ugliness of the 120 minutes wasn't enough - the grisly battle, the hair-on-fire panic, the abysmal lack of anything resembling coherence or even competence - there was the disgrace of the post-match.
From BBC
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
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.
