as in ugly
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Recent Examples of gnarly
Saccharine is more polished in its technical aspects than in its storytelling, from the queasy visuals (Sarroff shot Relic, as well as both Smile movies) and sickly lighting to composer Hannah Peel’s eerie synths to some impressively gnarly gore.
—
David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Feb. 2026
Big Sky, Montana This year is shaping up to be a banner one for Big Sky, a 5,850-acre resort (America’s second largest behind Park City) awash with steeps, trees, bumps, and a gnarly triple black diamond run called Big Couloir, which drops more than 1,400 feet with a sustained pitch of 50 degrees.
—Amy Tara Koch, Robb Report, 29 Jan. 2026
There's a scene in Send Help, director Sam Raimi's survival horror-thriller and borderline comedy, in which Dylan O'Brien's Bradley Preston eats a gnarly bug.
—Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Jan. 2026
But in a 2023 paper, a team of physicists, including the great theoretician Edward Witten, added an observer with a quantum clock to their treatment of a black hole and were surprised to find the gnarly math became simpler.
—Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 27 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for gnarly
David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 3 Feb. 2026
Big Sky, Montana This year is shaping up to be a banner one for Big Sky, a 5,850-acre resort (America’s second largest behind Park City) awash with steeps, trees, bumps, and a gnarly triple black diamond run called Big Couloir, which drops more than 1,400 feet with a sustained pitch of 50 degrees.
—Amy Tara Koch, Robb Report, 29 Jan. 2026
There's a scene in Send Help, director Sam Raimi's survival horror-thriller and borderline comedy, in which Dylan O'Brien's Bradley Preston eats a gnarly bug.
—Nick Romano, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Jan. 2026
But in a 2023 paper, a team of physicists, including the great theoretician Edward Witten, added an observer with a quantum clock to their treatment of a black hole and were surprised to find the gnarly math became simpler.
—Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 27 Jan. 2026
See All Example Sentences for gnarly
Recent Examples of Synonyms for gnarly
Adjective
-
During the last two weeks, Sarandos got dragged into two ugly controversies.—
Meg James,
Los Angeles Times,
28 Feb. 2026
-
Trump was, by now, back in office, and the issue of CNN again reared its ugly head.—
Jon Allsop,
New Yorker,
27 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
One of most hideous images in American poetry, and yet one of the most memorable.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Feb. 2026
-
Next, law enforcement must rigorously interrogate the men and women who exchanged chummy emails with Epstein and played in his hideous sandbox.—
Amy Wallace,
Mercury News,
25 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Critics at its first press screening called the film disgusting, accusing it of exploiting both its oblivious subjects and the beloved former first lady.—
Rosemary Counter,
Vanity Fair,
25 Feb. 2026
-
Just last week the president tweeted a vile and disgusting image of President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, and refuses to apologize.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
18 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
The blood seeps up the edges of her white skirts — that’s going to be hellish to try to get out.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
16 Feb. 2026
-
Finding the beauty in that hellish croak — something that Josh Groban was able to do in the last Broadway revival — can prove exceptionally difficult.—
Theater Critic,
Los Angeles Times,
3 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Most of Becket’s relatives are loathsome (Grace is funny as a fraudulent self-help quasi-religious guru), though his uncle (the great Bill Camp) is a decent fellow who wants to lend Becket a hand.—
Bill Goodykoontz,
AZCentral.com,
18 Feb. 2026
-
In the show’s first episode, Jaquel Spivey, who starred in the Broadway production of A Strange Loop, a musical about the experience of being a self-hating fat gay Black man, is introduced as a loathsome incel.—
Jackson McHenry,
Vulture,
4 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
Grier could choose to navigate the deadline by parting with some periphery pieces — or even one or two that the Sharks rely on a great deal — but not dramatically subtracting from a group that played its way into playoff contention after a horrid start to the 2025-26 season.—
Eric Stephens,
New York Times,
24 Feb. 2026
-
Their windows and their kitchens are horrid.—
The New Yorker,
New Yorker,
20 Feb. 2026
Adjective
-
But Jere Cordell, of San Diego, swears the beastly carrier USS Nimitz won an impromptu drag race against slender cruisers a half-century ago off Norfolk, Va.—
Gary Robbins,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
7 Dec. 2025
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Which is a testament to her incredible ability and power as an actor to be taking on two of the most canonical, beastly parts for women in literature.—
Tessa Thompson,
IndieWire,
30 Nov. 2025
Adjective
-
Coventry said at a news conference last week that the IOC has a safeguarding unit that monitors the organization’s social media platforms for hateful messages.—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
23 Feb. 2026
-
The other 1/3 were very hateful with threats, etc.—
Claire Osborn,
Austin American Statesman,
23 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Gnarly.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/gnarly. Accessed 4 Mar. 2026.
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