grisly
Syllables: gris·ly/ˈɡɹɪzli/
grisly adjective: horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying. Also the obsolete form of grizzly.
Adjective
grisly (comparative grislier, superlative grisliest)
- Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
- The photographs of the killings depict a grisly scene.
- Magnes and many thinges attractive are, / But nothing ſo allective under ſkyes, / As that ſame dainty amiable ſtarre, / That none but griſly mouth of hell defyes.1588, G[abriel] H[arvey], “[Greenes Memoriall; Or Certaine Funerall Sonnets.] Sonnet XVII. His Exhortation to Atonement and Love.”, in J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Fovre Letters, and Certaine...
Adverb
grisly (comparative more grisly, superlative most grisly)
- In a horrible or terrible manner; in a terrifying way.
- [A] very fair young gentlewoman [Sir Roger Wentworth's daughter], of twelve years of age, in marvellous manner vexed and tormented by our ghostly enemy, the devil, her mind alienated and raving, with despising and blaspheming of God, and hatred of all hallowed things, […] finally being brought and...1850, William Tyndale, quoting Thomas More, “[The Solutions and Answers unto M. More’s First Book.] The Sixteenth Chapter”, in Henry Walter, editor, An Answer to Sir Thomas More’s Dialogue, The...
- A valiant Captain of great prowess, as fierce as a fox assaulting a goose, was so hardy to give the first stroke: then got they so grisly together, that great was the activity that day to be seen there on both sides: the one very eager for purchase of prey, the other utterly stout for redemption of...1870, George Adlard, “A Letter: Whearin Part of the Entertainment unto the Queen’s Majesty at Killingworth Castl in Warwiksheer in this Somers Progress—1575 is Signified: From a Freend Officer...
Also used as
grisly is also the obsolete form of grizzly.
grisly is also the misspelling of gristly.
Examples of grisly in a sentence
- We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will.1941, Winston Churchill, The Unrelenting Struggle:
- Perhaps you have to have seen the first film to like this one; to feel, like the young fans of Harry Potter, that without knowing or wanting it, you have grown up with its grisly protagonists.2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn’t disappoint”, in The Guardian, London, archived...
- Ireland’s capital is no longer in lockdown but the grisly sport continues.2023 September 20, Rory Carroll, “‘It’s almost every day’: foreign delivery riders face gang attacks in Dublin”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
Synonyms of grisly
- gristly
- grizzly
- affreux
- alarming
- spine-tingling
- appalling
- awful
- eldritch
- butt-clenching
- buttock-clenching
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
- dreadful
- fearful
- flaysome
- flesh-crawling
- formidable
- freaky
- frightening
- frightensome
- frightful
- ghastly
- ghostly
- hair-curling
- hair-raising
- horrible
- horrid
- horrific
- horrifying
- horripilating
- pulse-pounding
- scaring
- scary
- shocking
- skin-crawling
- terrible
- terrifying
- terrorsome
- grey-headed
- grizzled
- hoary
- gray / grey
Forms of grisly
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | grislier |
| superlative | grisliest |
| alternative form | griesly |
| alternative form | grislie |
| Noun | |
| plural | grislies |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more grisly |
| superlative | most grisly |
Origin of grisly
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).
From grisle (“horror, terror”) + -ly; compare Middle Dutch griselike, Middle Low German grislike.
Words formed from grisly
Phrases with grisly
Words that rhyme with grisly
Questions about grisly
- What does grisly mean?
- Grisly means horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
- How do you use grisly in a sentence?
- We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will.
- What part of speech is grisly?
- Grisly can be an adjective or an adverb.
- How do you pronounce grisly?
- Grisly is pronounced /ˈɡɹɪzli/ (UK).
Words near grisly in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: grisly (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-grisly.wav.
Cite this entry: “grisly.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/grisly. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.