GRISLY (grislier, grisliest)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: grislier    , grisliest   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does grisly mean? 

• GRISLY (adjective)
  The adjective GRISLY has 1 sense:

1. shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

  Familiarity information: GRISLY used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• GRISLY (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

Synonyms:

ghastly; grim; grisly; gruesome; macabre; sick

Context example:

macabre tortures conceived by madmen

Similar:

alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)

 Context examples 

He sprawled silently on the ground, watching the grisly form of a great doubt rising before him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And there remain one more victim in the Vampire fold; one more to swell the grim and grisly ranks of the Un-Dead!...

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He did not gather his eyebrows together, for he had none worth mentioning; but he frowned to that degree that he almost closed his small eyes, while the hurried raising of his grisly hand to his chin betrayed some trepidation or surprise.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Thus, in his development, Martin found himself face to face with economic morality, or the morality of class; and soon it became to him a grisly monster.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Have you seen that awful den of hellish infamy—with the very moonlight alive with grisly shapes, and every speck of dust that whirls in the wind a devouring monster in embryo?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

After some rubbing of the lower part of his face, and some looking at us with those bad eyes, over his grisly fingers, he made one more address to me, half whining, and half abusive.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And Cheese-Face, ready to drop and die, or to stay on his legs and die, a grisly monster out of whose features all likeness to Cheese-Face had been beaten, wavered and hesitated; but Martin sprang in and smashed him again and again.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He stirred his coffee round and round, he sipped it, he felt his chin softly with his grisly hand, he looked at the fire, he looked about the room, he gasped rather than smiled at me, he writhed and undulated about, in his deferential servility, he stirred and sipped again, but he left the renewal of the conversation to me.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)