grim

grim

adjective

Definition of GRIM

1

harsh and threatening in manner or appearance <a grim and desolate landscape> <a grim and short-tempered shopkeeper who didn't exactly invite friendly conversation>

Synonyms austere, dour, fierce, flinty, forbidding, gruff, intimidating, lowering (also louring), rough, rugged, severe, stark, steely, stern, ungentle

Related Words bleak, cold, hostile, inhospitable, inimical, unfriendly, unsympathetic; adamant, bound, determined, firm, intent, purposeful, resolute, resolved, steadfast, unflinching; fixed, hard, hardened, hardheaded, immovable, implacable, inflexible, ironhanded, mulish, obdurate, obstinate, rigid, self-willed, set, stiff, stubborn, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, willful (or wilful); immutable, unchangeable; black, cheerless, dark, gloomy, glum, joyless, melancholic, moody, morose, sulky, sullen, surly; brooding, grave, humorless, melancholy, serious, sober, sobersided, solemn, somber (or sombre), staid, unsmiling, weighty

Near Antonyms bland, meek, mellow, soft, soothing; easy, quiet, tranquil; agreeable, bright, cheerful, inviting, pleasant, pleasing, sweet; glad, happy, lighthearted, merry, mirthful, sunny; featherbrained, flighty, frivolous, giddy, goofy, harebrained, light-headed, playful, scatterbrained, silly

Antonyms benign, benignant, gentle, mild, nonintimidating, tender

2

difficult to endure <this winter is supposed to be particularly grim, so stock up on firewood>

Synonyms bitter, brutal, burdensome, cruel, excruciating, grievous, grim, hard, hardhanded, heavy, inhuman, murderous, onerous, oppressive, rough, rugged, searing, severe, stiff, tough, trying

Related Words austere, bleak, comfortless, discomforting, forbidding, inhospitable, spartan, uncomfortable; biting, inclement, intemperate, wild; rigorous, strict, stringent; agonizing, heartbreaking, heartrending, painful, wretched; crushing, grinding, overwhelming, wearing; insufferable, insupportable, intolerable, unbearable, unendurable; harrowing, tortuous; bad, disagreeable, hostile, unfriendly, unpleasant

Near Antonyms comfortable, cozy, luxurious, snug; agreeable, friendly, genial, hospitable, pleasant; peaceful, relaxing, reposeful, restful; bearable, endurable, painless, tolerable; balmy, calm, clement, gentle, mild, moderate, temperate

Antonyms easy, light, soft

3

showing no signs of slackening or yielding in one's purpose <with grim determination, the woman worked three jobs to put her fatherless children through college>

Synonyms determined, dogged, grim, implacable, relentless, unappeasable, unflinching, unrelenting

Related Words persevering, persistent, tenacious; hard, hardheaded, headstrong, intractable, mulish, obdurate, opinionated, peevish, pertinacious, perverse, pigheaded, self-willed, stubborn, uncooperative, willful (or wilful); merciless, ruthless, unforgiving

Near Antonyms slackening, softening, yielding; impotent, invertebrate, slack, spineless, weak; complaisant, obliging, pliable, pliant

4

violently unfriendly or aggressive in disposition <grim warriors heading into battle>

Synonyms fell, ferocious, grim, savage, vicious

Related Words argumentative, assaultive, bellicose, belligerent, brawly, chippy, combative, confrontational, discordant, disputatious, feisty, gladiatorial, militant, pugnacious, scrappy, warlike; bare-knuckle (also bare-knuckled or bare-knuckles), blood-and-guts, in-your-face, take-no-prisoners; contentious, quarrelsome, truculent; menacing, threatening; bestial, brute, inhuman, inhumane; barbaric, uncivilized, wild; heartless, implacable, merciless, pitiless, relentless, ruthless, unrelenting, wanton; bloodthirsty, bloody, homicidal, murdering, murderous, sanguinary, sanguine; rapacious, ravenous, voracious

Near Antonyms amicable, companionable, comradely, congenial, cordial, friendly, genial, hearty, warm, warmhearted; compliant, submissive, tame; benign, compassionate, kind, merciful; pacific, peaceable, peaceful; amiable, complaisant, obliging; human, humane; civilized, cultured

Antonyms gentle, mild, unaggressive