Word.ws English Dictionary

greevous

greevous is the obsolete spelling of grievous.

Meaning of grievous

Adjective

grievous (comparative more grievous, superlative most grievous)

  1. Causing grief, pain, or sorrow.
    • No wonder that the old man's eye dwelt upon her with mingled pride and tenderness; yet was it a face that might cause affection many an anxious hour, for there was mind in the lofty and clear forehead, heart in the warm and flushed cheek,—and what are mind and heart to woman, but fairy gifts, for...1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Age and Youth”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 14
  2. Serious, grave, dire, or dangerous.
    • As for the captain, his wounds were grievous indeed, but not dangerous.1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “How My Sea Adventure Began”, in Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part V (My Sea Adventure), page 176

Forms of greevous

comparativemore greevous
superlativemost greevous

Questions about greevous

What is greevous the obsolete spelling of?
Greevous is the obsolete spelling of grievous.

Words near greevous in the dictionary

  1. greeve
  2. Greeven
  3. Greevens
  4. greeves
  5. greeveship
  6. greevous
  7. greeze
  8. greezes
  9. greffier
  10. greffiers
  11. Grefsen

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: greevous (page history and authors); grievous (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “greevous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/greevous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.