Adjacent Words

Grievous definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GRIE'VOUS, a. [from grieve, or grief.] Heavy; oppressive; burdensome; as a grievous load of taxes.
1. Afflictive; painful; hard to be borne.
Correction is grievous to him that forsaketh the way. Proverbs 15.
2. Causing grief or sorrow.
The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight, because of his son. Genesis 21.
3. Distressing.
The famine was very grievous in the land. Genesis 12.
4. Great; atrocious.
Because their sin is very grievous. Genesis 18.
5. Expressing great uneasiness; as a grievous complaint.
6. Provoking; offensive; tending to irritate; as grievous words. Proverbs 15.
7. Hurtful; destructive; causing mischief; as grievous wolves. Acts 20.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm; "a dangerous operation"; "a grave situation"; "a grave illness"; "grievous bodily harm"; "a serious wound"; "a serious turn of events"; "a severe case of pneumonia"; "a life-threatening disease" [syn: dangerous, grave, grievous, serious, severe, life-threatening]
2: causing or marked by grief or anguish; "a grievous loss"; "a grievous cry"; "her sigh was heartbreaking"; "the heartrending words of Rabin's granddaughter" [syn: grievous, heartbreaking, heartrending]
3: of great gravity or crucial import; requiring serious thought; "grave responsibilities"; "faced a grave decision in a time of crisis"; "a grievous fault"; "heavy matters of state"; "the weighty matters to be discussed at the peace conference" [syn: grave, grievous, heavy, weighty]
4: shockingly brutal or cruel; "murder is an atrocious crime"; "a grievous offense against morality"; "a grievous crime"; "no excess was too monstrous for them to commit" [syn: atrocious, flagitious, grievous, monstrous]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: 13th century 1. causing or characterized by severe pain, suffering, or sorrow <a grievous wound> <a grievous loss> 2. oppressive, onerous <grievous costs of war> 3. serious, grave <grievous fault> • grievously adverb • grievousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 (of pain etc.) severe. 2 causing grief or suffering. 3 injurious. 4 flagrant, heinous. Phrases and idioms: grievous bodily harm Law serious injury inflicted intentionally on a person. Derivatives: grievously adv. grievousness n. Etymology: ME f. OF grevos (as GRIEVE(1))

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Grievous Griev"ous, a. [OF. grevous, grevos, LL. gravosus. See Grief.] 1. Causing grief or sorrow; painful; afflictive; hard to bear; offensive; harmful. The famine was grievous in the land. --Gen. xii. 10. The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight. --Gen. xxi. 11. 2. Characterized by great atrocity; heinous; aggravated; flagitious; as, a grievous sin. --Gen. xviii. 20. 3. Full of, or expressing, grief; showing great sorrow or affliction; as, a grievous cry. -- Griev"ous*ly, adv. -- Griev"ous*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe something such as a loss as grievous, you mean that it is extremely serious or worrying in its effects. Their loss would be a grievous blow to our engineering industries... Mr Morris said the victims had suffered from a very grievous mistake. ADJ: usu ADJ n • grievously Birds, sea-life and the coastline all suffered grievously. ADV: ADV with v 2. A grievous injury to your body is one that causes you great pain and suffering. He survived in spite of suffering grievous injuries. ADJ: usu ADJ n • grievously Nelson Piquet, three times world champion, was grievously injured. ADV: ADV with v, ADV adj

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Distressing, afflictive, afflicting, painful, sad, deplorable, lamentable, hard to bear. 2. Hurtful, injurious, baneful, noxious, mischievous, detrimental, destructive, calamitous. 3. Atrocious, heinous, flagitious, outrageous, intolerable, dreadful, gross, iniquitous, flagrant, aggravated.

Moby Thesaurus

abominable, acute, affecting, afflictive, aggrieved, anguished, appalling, arrant, atrocious, awful, base, beastly, beneath contempt, bitter, black, blameworthy, bleak, brutal, burdensome, calamitous, careworn, cataclysmal, cataclysmic, catastrophic, cheerless, comfortless, contemptible, damaging, dangerous, demanding, deplorable, depressing, depressive, despicable, destructive, detestable, dire, disastrous, discomforting, disgusting, dismal, dismaying, distasteful, distressful, distressing, doleful, dolorific, dolorogenic, dolorous, dreadful, dreary, dumb with grief, egregious, enormous, exacting, exigent, fatal, fell, fetid, filthy, flagrant, foul, fulsome, galling, grave, grief-stricken, griefful, grieved, gross, harmful, hateful, heartbreaking, heartrending, heavy, heinous, horrible, horrid, hurtful, in grief, infamous, intolerable, joyless, lamentable, loathsome, lousy, lugubrious, major, monstrous, mournful, moving, nasty, nefarious, noisome, notorious, obnoxious, odious, offensive, oppressive, outrageous, painful, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, plaintive, plangent, plunged in grief, poignant, rank, regrettable, reprehensible, repulsive, rotten, rueful, ruinous, sad, saddening, scandalous, schlock, scurvy, serious, severe, shabby, shameful, sharp, shocking, shoddy, sordid, sore, sorrowed, sorrowful, sorrowing, squalid, superincumbent, taxing, tearful, terrible, too bad, touching, tough, tragic, ugly, unbearable, unclean, uncomfortable, unfortunate, unpalatable, vile, villainous, weighty, woebegone, woeful, worst, worthless, wounding, wreckful, wretched