gruesome
Syllables: grue·some/ˈɡɹuːsəm/US/ˈɡɹusəm/
gruesome adjective: repellently frightful and shocking; ghastly, horrific.
Adjective
gruesome (comparative gruesomer or more gruesome, superlative gruesomest or most gruesome)
- Repellently frightful and shocking; ghastly, horrific.
- He taks a ſvvirlie, auld moſs-oak, / For ſome black, grouſome Carlin; […]1785 (date written), Robert Burns, “Halloween”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect. […], 2nd edition, volume I, Edinburgh: […] T[homas] Cadell, […], and William Creech, […], published 1793...
- There's a wheen German horse doun at Glasgow yonder; they ca' their commander Wittybody, or some sic name, though he's as grave and grewsome an auld Dutchman as e'er I saw.1816, Jedadiah Cleishbotham [pseudonym; Walter Scott], chapter XII, in Tales of My Landlord, […], volume I (The Black Dwarf), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for William Blackwood, […]...
- Synonyms:
- grisly, horrible, affreux, alarming, spine-tingling, appalling, awful, eldritch, buggish, butt-clenching
- Antonyms:
- ungruesome
- Awful, terrible.
- The team was so unprepared that the way it played was just gruesome.
- Antonyms:
- acceptable, agreeable, all right, amazing, as fine as Dick's hatband, awesome, beatific, bene, blissful, bodacious
- Of a person: filled with fear; afraid, fearful.
- Then says I to myself,—"John Ridd, these trees, and pools, and lonesome rocks, and setting of the sunlight, are making a gruesome coward of thee. Shall I go back to my mother so, and be called her fearless boy?"1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter VII, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, page 82
- Some of his [Nathaniel Hawthorne's] companions, either then or afterwards, took, I believe, rather a gruesome view of his want of articulate enthusiasm, and accused him of coming to the place as a sort of intellectual vampire, for purely psychological purposes.1879, Henry James, Junr., “Brook Farm and Concord”, in John Morley, editor, Hawthorne (English Men of Letters; 13), London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 87
- Synonyms:
- afeared, afraid, alarmed, anxious, apprehensive, chicken, concerned, creeped out, fearful, frightened
- Antonyms:
- unafraid, unruffled, unterrified
gruesome meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
gruesome in Urdu
- بھیانک, دہشت ناک, ڈراؤنا, ہیبت ناک, ہولناک, مکروہ
gruesome in Bengali
- বীভৎস
gruesome in Malayalam
- ഭയാനകമായ, ദാരുണം, കരാളമായ, ബീഭത്സമായ
gruesome in Kannada
- ಭೀಭತ್ಸ, ಭಯಂಕರ, ಭೀಕರ, ಘೋರ, ಬೆಚ್ಚಿಸುವ, ದಿಗಿಲುಗೊಳಿಸುವ
More languagesFewer languages
- gruesome in Arabic
- مُرَوِّع murawwiʕ
- gruesome in Malay
- mengerikan
Examples of gruesome in a sentence
- He has taken a bride / To his gruesome side, / That's as fair as himself is bold: […]1855, Robert Browning, “A Lovers’ Quarrel”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza 5, page 9:
- Look at my shadow, Leonard." It was a gruesome-looking shadow, with high back, and head thrust forward.1878, Walter Besant, James Rice, “A Friendly Chat”, in By Celia’s Arbour. A Tale of Portsmouth Town. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low...
- There are people that ship off far gruesomer figures / in sermons, in art, and in literature— […]1892, Henrik Ibsen, translated by William Archer and Charles Archer, edited by William Archer, Peer Gynt: A Dramatic Poem […] (Ibsen’s...
Synonyms of gruesome
- grisly
- horrible
- affreux
- alarming
- spine-tingling
- appalling
- awful
- eldritch
- butt-clenching
- buttock-clenching
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
10 more antonymsFewer antonyms
Forms of gruesome
| comparative | gruesomer |
|---|---|
| comparative | more gruesome |
| superlative | gruesomest |
| superlative | most gruesome |
| alternative form | grewsome |
Origin of gruesome
From grue (“(archaic except Northern England, Scotland) to be frightened; to shudder with fear”) + -some (suffix meaning ‘characterized by some specific condition or quality, usually to a considerable degree’ forming adjectives and nouns), probably popularized by the Scottish novelist and poet Walter Scott (1771–1832): see, for example, the 1816 quotation. cognates * Danish grusom (“cruel; horrible”) * Middle Dutch grousaem, grusaem (modern Dutch gruwzaam (“cruel; gruesome”)) * Middle High German grûsam, grûwesam (modern German grausam (“cruel”)) * Norwegian Bokmål grusom (“cruel; horrible”)
Words formed from gruesome
Phrases with gruesome
Words that rhyme with gruesome
Questions about gruesome
- What does gruesome mean?
- Gruesome means repellently frightful and shocking; ghastly, horrific.
- What is gruesome in Urdu?
- Gruesome in Urdu is بھیانک, دہشت ناک, ڈراؤنا. See Gruesome meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use gruesome in a sentence?
- He has taken a bride / To his gruesome side, / That's as fair as himself is bold: […]
- What part of speech is gruesome?
- Gruesome is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce gruesome?
- Gruesome is pronounced /ˈɡɹuːsəm/ (UK).
Words near gruesome in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gruesome (page history and authors); gruesome (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gruesome (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); gruesome (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gruesome (Kannada 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.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gruesome.wav.
Cite this entry: “gruesome.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gruesome. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.