grimly
/ˈɡɹɪmli/
grimly adjective: grim-looking, grim-natured.
Adjective
grimly (comparative grimlier, superlative grimliest)
- Grim-looking, grim-natured.
- To hear her rant, one would have supposed, who had not seen him, that her lank-haired, grimly partner, was the prettiest youth in the county of Dublin, and that all the comely lasses in Chapelizod and the country round were sighing and setting caps at him […]1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard
- In reality it was the most terrifying sight I had seen to date: two fried eggs decorated with ketchup, Tabasco and chopped chillis in the semblance of a pair of bloodshot eyes – I would as soon have eaten my own leg. I waved the grimly thing away.1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin, published 2001, page 94
Adverb
grimly (comparative more grimly, superlative most grimly)
- In a grim manner.
- He looked round and shouted grimly, "As soon as the gate is opened, you go out there - running."1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 63
- I looked out my window / The cloud was grimly forming / Waiting for the rain I saw / The one dark cloud forming1968, “Grimly Forming”, in Peter Vandergeler (lyrics), Conspicuous Only in Its Absence, performed by The Great Society
- Synonyms:
- grisly
grimly meaning in Tamil and Telugu
grimly in Tamil
- உம்
grimly in Telugu
- in a grim manner
- వికారముగా vikāramugā
Examples of grimly in a sentence
- The history of cast iron in railway bridges is much more grimly chequered.
- Muñoz grimly acknowledged the possibility that surveillance irregularities had occurred earlier this decade.
- Not wanting to lose his favorite sword, Orivon hung on grimly to its hilt.
Synonyms of grimly
Forms of grimly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | grimlier |
| superlative | grimliest |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more grimly |
| superlative | most grimly |
Origin of grimly
From Middle English grymly, grimlich, from Old English grimliċ, corresponding to grim + -ly. Compare grimlike.
From Middle English grymly, grimliche, from Old English grimlīċe, equivalent to grim + -ly. Cognate with Icelandic grimmliga.
Words formed from grimly
Words that rhyme with grimly
Questions about grimly
- What does grimly mean?
- Grimly means grim-looking, grim-natured.
- What is grimly in Tamil?
- Grimly in Tamil is உம். See Grimly meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is grimly?
- Grimly can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce grimly?
- Grimly is pronounced /ˈɡɹɪmli/.
Words near grimly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: grimly (page history and authors); grimly (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-grimly.ogg.
Cite this entry: “grimly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grimly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.