grievous

[ gree-vuhs ]

adjective

1. causing grief or great sorrow:

   grievous news.

   Synonyms: painful, sorrowful, sad, tragic, heartbreaking

   Antonyms: delightful

2. full of or expressing grief; sorrowful:

   a grievous cry.

3. characterized by great pain or suffering; severe:

   grievous bodily harm;

   a grievous injury.

4. having serious effects; grave:

   a grievous mistake;

   grievous faults.

5. extremely or shockingly wicked, cruel, brutal, etc.; atrocious:

   a grievous offense against morality;

   grievous crimes.

   Synonyms: critical, acute, onerous, harsh, brutal, heinous, appalling

6. burdensome; oppressive:

   to incur grievous expenses.

grievous

/ ˈɡriːvəs /

adjective

1. very severe or painful

   a grievous injury

2. very serious; heinous

   a grievous sin

3. showing or marked by grief

   a grievous cry

4. causing great pain or suffering

   a grievous attack

Derived Forms

• ˈgrievously, adverb
• ˈgrievousness, noun

Other Words From

• griev·ous·ly adverb
• griev·ous·ness noun
• non·griev·ous adjective
• non·griev·ous·ness noun
• o·ver·griev·ous adjective
• o·ver·griev·ous·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of grievous¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English grevous, from Old French grevo(u)s; grieve, -ous

Example Sentences

Depictions of Indigenous communities in American pop culture have, historically, often added insult to grievous injury.

From Time

The jihadist military had suffered a grievous blow, but the extremist theology lived on.

From Time

It had suffered grievous casualties but its infrastructure and industrial capacity were untouched, and its relative power had never—and has never—been greater.

From Time

When his first wife died from tuberculosis, despite his zealous efforts to save her, a grievous Metchnikoff took an overdose of opium, but lived.

From Nautilus

Prosecutors alleged that in June 2011 and April 2012, he unlawfully struck, choked, kicked and pulled the hair of his wife and struck her young son “with a force likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm.”

From Washington Post

Hildebrand was keenly aware of the grievous failures of Christians under Nazism.

From The Daily Beast

The cop lay open-eyed with a grievous head wound as Johnson again checked for a pulse.

From The Daily Beast

No longer will we have to endure the grievous injury of that flag popping up as a museum shop chotchke.

From The Daily Beast

Some horror will be too great, some attack too grievous for us to ignore.

From The Daily Beast

The tactics almost certainly have saved untold thousands of innocents from grievous injury, even death.

From The Daily Beast

A grievous vision is told me: he that is unfaithful dealeth unfaithfully: and he that is a spoiler, spoileth.

From Project Gutenberg

But his record shows grievous instability, and Robert probably had sound reasons for putting a period to his dubieties.

From Project Gutenberg

And then the old woman found that she had made a grievous mistake, and hastened to repair it.

From Project Gutenberg

At their presence the people shall be in grievous pains: all faces shall be made like a kettle.

From Project Gutenberg

Here are four distinct predictions; national peculiarity, grievous oppression, universal dispersion and remarkable preservation.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• appalling
• atrocious
• calamitous
• damaging
• deplorable
• dire
• dreadful
• egregious
• flagrant
• glaring
• heinous
• intolerable
• lamentable
• monstrous
• outrageous
• shameful
• shocking
• tragic
• unbearable