Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- To shiver; shudder; feel horror.
- (impersonal) To pain; grieve.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive, archaic To be
frightened ; toshudder withfear . - noun A
shiver , ashudder - noun A
fictional predator that dwells in the dark. - noun Any byproduct of a gruesome event, i.e. gore, viscera, entrails, blood and guts.
- adjective philosophy Of an object, green when first
observed before a specified time or blue when first observed after that time. - adjective linguistics
Green orblue , as a translation from languages such as Welsh that do not distinguish between thesehues .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Knowing that exactly such a ruinous retaliation was coming-and to people she liked, or even loved-gave her what her father called the grue: a cold sense of oppressive horror, coiling through the blood.
A Breath of Snow and Ashes Gabaldon, Diana 2005
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The military men wade deeper in grue, following the discovery of a Special Forces commander whose squad has been picked off by particularly unstoppable foes – werewolves the size of minivans.
Current Movie Reviews, Independent Movies - Film Threat 2002
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“new riddle of induction”, commonly called the grue paradox, invites us to consider the predicate grue, which is true before time t only of objects that are green and after time
The Frame Problem Shanahan, Murray 2004
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Watch it for the grue, which is fantastically well-done (if hilariously improbable) and not for anything else - even the nudity is ruined by women turning into monsters.
BeyondHollywood.com | Movie News, Reviews, and Opinions Gazz Ogden 2010
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The grue is a sinister, lurking presence in the dark places of the earth.
MetaFilter Projects 2008
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He had turned a complete somersault in the water beneath us, giving us a "grue" as we reflected what would have happened had he then chosen to come bounding to the surface.
The Cruise of the Cachalot Round the World After Sperm Whales Frank T. Bullen 1886
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Drumsheugh was much shaken, and the sound of the Christian name, which he had not heard since his mother's death, gave him a "grue" (shiver), as if one had spoken from the other world.
A Doctor of the Old School — Volume 4 Ian Maclaren 1878
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Drumsheugh was much shaken, and the sound of the Christian name, which he had not heard since his mother's death, gave him a "grue"
Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush Ian Maclaren 1878
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Drumsheugh was much shaken, and the sound of the Christian name, which he had not heard since his mother's death, gave him a "grue" (shiver), as if one had spoken from the other world.
A Doctor of the Old School — Complete Ian Maclaren 1878
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I think his focus was more on Japan (eg the color "grue" reflecting their lack of differentiation between grey from blue) but I'm sure enough of it would have applied to
TravelPod.com TravelStream™ — Recent Entries at TravelPod.com 2010
yarb commented on the word grue
The noise made by people feeling ill in children's comics in the 80's.
EDIT: ignore the above! The word I was thinking of was the homonym groo.
October 23, 2007
vanishedone commented on the word grue
'It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.' (Zork)
Also a creation of Nelson Goodman. See also bleen.
October 23, 2007
yarb commented on the word grue
To expand, an object is grue if green and examined before time t, or blue and not examined before t.
October 24, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word grue
"Still in the grip of a cold grue, I swung around and strained my eyes ... half expecting to see the scene engraved on my memory materialize again out of darkness...."
—Diana Gabaldon, Drums of Autumn (NY: Dell, 1997), 250
January 19, 2010
BrokenEye commented on the word grue
n. That which one is likely to be eaten by
April 16, 2015
ruzuzu commented on the word grue
"Although nutraloaf can be found in many United States prisons, its use is controversial. It was mentioned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1978 in Hutto v. Finney while ruling that conditions in the Arkansas penal system constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Prisoners were fed "grue", described as "a substance created by mashing meat, potatoes, margarine, syrup, vegetables, eggs, and seasoning into a paste and baking the mixture in a pan." The majority decision delivered by Justice Stevens upheld an order from the 8th Circuit Court that the grue diet be discontinued."
-- http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nutraloaf&oldid=658869419
June 10, 2015
qms commented on the word grue
Tonight pay the devil his due
And savor the witches' strange brew
As bandits and zombies
And other bad hombres
Cause many a shriek and a grue.
October 31, 2016