grisly
Plural: grislies
Adjective Satellite
- shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
- "a grisly murder"
Adj
- Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
- Obsolete form of grizzly.
- Misspelling of gristly.
Noun
- Obsolete form of grizzly (“type of bear”).
Adv
- In a horrible or terrible manner; in a terrifying way.
Adjective
- Causing horror or disgust; ghastly or gruesome.
Examples
- A grisly word like ’SLAUGHTER’ can be a high scorer, but might raise eyebrows.
- The photographs of the killings depict a grisly scene.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English grisely, grysly, grissliȝ, griselich, grislich, from Old English grisliċ (“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”), from grīsan (“to shudder with horror; to tremble, to be terrified; to make tremble, to terrify; to agrise, grise”) (unattested but implied in āgrīsan) + -lic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’).
The word may also be an aphetic form of Old English ongrislic, agrisenliċ, the past participle of agrīsan (“to agrise”).
Compare Danish grusom, Swedish gräslig, Middle Dutch grezelijc (modern Dutch griezelig), Middle High German grisenlich (modern German grässlich, grausen).
Synonyms
ghastly, grim, gruesome, macabre, sick, affreux, alarming, appalling, awful, buggish, butt-clenching, buttock-clenching, dismayful, dreadful, fearful, flaysome, flesh-crawling, formidable, freaky, frightening, frightensome, frightful, ghostly, grimly, grisly, gristly, grisy, grizzly, hair-curling, hair-raising, horrible, horribly, horrid, horrific, horrifying, horripilating, pulse-pounding, scaring, scary, shocking, skin-crawling, terrible, terribly, terrifying, terrorsome
Scrabble Score: 10
grisly: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordgrisly: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
grisly: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary