Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Causing repugnance; gruesome. synonym: ghastly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Frightfully; terribly.
  • An obsolete spelling of grizzly.
  • Such as to inspire fear; frightful; terrible; gruesome; grim: as, a grisly countenance; a grisly specter.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Frightful; horrible; dreadful; harsh
  • adjective (Zoöl.) See under Grizzly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective horrifyingly repellent; terrifying, gruesome

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English grisli, from Old English grislīc; see ghrēi- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Late Old English grisliċ. Compare German grausen and Danish grusom.

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Examples

Comments

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  • "More birds flew in through this hole; those which still remained in the guest-room rushed into the study. Flesh fell from Stark's twitching skeleton in a grisly rain."

    - 'The Dark Half', Stephen King.

    December 31, 2007