grisly

adjective

gris·​ly ˈgriz-lē 

grislier; grisliest

1

: inspiring horror or intense fear

houses that were dark and grisly under the blank, cold sky

—D. H. Lawrence

2

: inspiring disgust or distaste

a grisly account of the fire

grisliness noun

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

• appalling
• atrocious
• awful
• dreadful
• frightful
• ghastly
• gruesome
• grewsome
• hideous
• horrendous
• horrible
• horrid
• horrific
• horrifying
• lurid
• macabre
• monstrous
• nightmare
• nightmarish
• shocking
• terrible
• terrific

Choose the Right Synonym for grisly

ghastly, grisly, gruesome, macabre, lurid mean horrifying and repellent in appearance or aspect.

ghastly suggests the terrifying aspects of corpses and ghosts.

a ghastly accident

grisly and gruesome suggest additionally the results of extreme violence or cruelty.

an unusually grisly murder

suffered a gruesome death

macabre implies a morbid preoccupation with the physical aspects of death.

a macabre tale of premature burial

lurid adds to gruesome the suggestion of shuddering fascination with violent death and especially with murder.

the lurid details of a crime

Examples of grisly in a Sentence

The jurors saw grisly photos of the crime scene.

the police report described the murder scene in grisly detail

Recent Examples on the Web

Winkler’s wife, Mary, and the couple’s three children were missing in the aftermath of the grisly discovery, and there was growing concern that the family had been kidnapped. —Calvin Milliner, ABC News, 19 Apr. 2024

But the upper floor had a grisly history of its own. —Randy Mason, Kansas City Star, 17 Apr. 2024

The grisly aftermath: throngs of dead fish lining the river bank. —Koh Ewe, TIME, 15 Apr. 2024

Even when the topic was as macabre and polarizing as that of a former American golden boy implicated in the grisliest of crimes. —Geoff Edgers, Washington Post, 12 Apr. 2024

This is all agreeably unexpected—the assimilation of gentle contemporary fathers into a long and grisly anthropology. —Dan Piepenbring, Harper's Magazine, 30 Mar. 2024

On October 3, 1995, people gathered around TVs in living rooms, bars and workplaces to watch the verdict in the trial of O.J. Simpson, who had been charged with the grisly murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. —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

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Old English grislic, from gris- (akin to Old English āgrīsan to fear); akin to Old High German grīsenlīh terrible

First Known Use

12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

grisly

adjective

gris·​ly ˈgriz-lē 

grislier; grisliest

: horrible, gruesome

a grisly description of the fire

grisliness noun