D. H. Lawrence
Did you know?
An angry grizzly bear could certainly inspire fear, so grizzly and grisly must be related, right? Grizzly comes from the Middle English adjective grisel, meaning "gray." Like its close relative grizzled, grizzly means "sprinkled or streaked with gray." In other words, the grizzly bear got its name because the hairs of its brownish to buff coat usually have silver or pale tips, creating a grizzled effect, not because it causes terror. Grisly is related to Old English grislic, which comes from a verb meaning "to fear" and which gives grisly its "terrifying" sense.
Synonyms
Examples of grisly in a Sentence
John Blake, CNN, 12 Apr. 2024
Lucy joins up with the Ghoul/Cooper on his hunt for Hank, and Maximus survives a grisly bullet wound.
—Jordan Moreau, Variety, 12 Apr. 2024
Andrew Crispo, a once high-flying art gallerist in Manhattan brought low by a long series of tabloid-worthy scandals, including tax evasion, extortion and implication in the grisly 1985 murder of a Norwegian art student, died on Feb. 8 in Brooklyn.
—Clay Risen, New York Times, 19 Mar. 2024
Promoting the video ignited a new round of condemnation from Trump's critics, who pointed to how the GOP contender has repeatedly used grisly images in the past and who asserted it crosses a serious line in U.S. politics.
—Phillip M. Bailey, USA TODAY, 30 Mar. 2024
After a grisly altercation with his old man, Doug eventually breaks free — but not before his dad leaves him short a finger and with a crippling spinal injury.
—Tim Grierson, Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2024
But for all the darkness that surrounds it, the Los Angeles mansion where Erik and Lyle Menendez murdered their parents today bears no remnant of the grisly crime for which it is known.
—James McClain, Robb Report, 26 Mar. 2024
As a general movie rule, when a group of happy weekenders head to a woodland cottage for a bit of rest and relaxation, the great outdoors has some grisly surprises in store for them.
—Guy Lodge, Variety, 25 Mar. 2024
In its grisly details, local residents saw echoes of Mississippi’s history of racist atrocities by people in authority.
—Michael Goldberg and Emily Wagster Pettus, Quartz, 21 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'grisly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Grisly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grisly. Accessed 18 Apr. 2024.
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