grisly
/ˈɡɹɪzli/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.74 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
adj
Misspelling of gristly.
Example Sentences
- "The photographs of the killings depict a grisly scene."
- "Magnes and many thinges attractive are, / But nothing ſo allective under ſkyes, / As that ſame dainty amiable ſtarre, / That none but griſly mouth of hell defyes."
- "Then clad in cloake of mistie fogges the darke night vp did come, / And with grim grislie looke did seeme to bid me get me home; […]"
- "It was sore travelling for horse and man under the blazing sun, with no food nor water save what he pressed from the pith of the palms, and even these were growing scarce. The only life on the plains was the hard and dusty scrub. Every hour brought a more hopeless and grislier desolation."
- "We know too well the bestial assault you are making upon the Russian people, to whom our hearts go out in their valiant struggle. We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst and we will do our best."
- "In his [Galway Kinnell's] new book, Body Rags, he has brought this style to a kind of perfection, especially in two poems about the killing of animals, "The Porcupine" and "The Bear." These are the grisliest poems I have ever read."
Etymology
From Middle English grisely, grysly, grissliȝ, griselich, grislich, from Old English grisliċ (“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”), from grīsan (“to shudder with horror; to tremble, to be terrified; to make tremble, to terrify; to agrise, grise”) (unattested but implied in āgrīsan) + -lic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’). The word may also be an aphetic form of Old English ongrislic, agrisenliċ, the past participle of agrīsan (“to agrise”). Compare Danish grusom, Swedish gräslig, Middle Dutch grezelijc (modern Dutch griezelig), Middle High German grisenlich (modern German grässlich, grausen).
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɡɹɪzli/
- British English: /ˈɡɹɪzli/
Usage
Inflected Forms
grislier (comparative)
grisliest (superlative)
griesly (alternative)
grislie (alternative)
grislies (plural)
more grisly (comparative)
most grisly (superlative)