Adjacent Words

Grim definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GRIM, a. [L. fremo; Eng. grumble, rumble.]
1. Fierce; ferocious; impressing terror; frightful; horrible; as a grim look; a grim face; grim war.
2. Ugly; ill looking.
3. Sour; crabbed peevish; surly.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty; "grim determination"; "grim necessity"; "Russia's final hour, it seemed, approached with inexorable certainty"; "relentless persecution"; "the stern demands of parenthood" [syn: grim, inexorable, relentless, stern, unappeasable, unforgiving, unrelenting]
2: shockingly repellent; inspiring horror; "ghastly wounds"; "the grim aftermath of the bombing"; "the grim task of burying the victims"; "a grisly murder"; "gruesome evidence of human sacrifice"; "macabre tales of war and plague in the Middle ages"; "macabre tortures conceived by madmen" [syn: ghastly, grim, grisly, gruesome, macabre, sick]
3: harshly ironic or sinister; "black humor"; "a grim joke"; "grim laughter"; "fun ranging from slapstick clowning ... to savage mordant wit" [syn: black, grim, mordant]
4: harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance; "a dour, self-sacrificing life"; "a forbidding scowl"; "a grim man loving duty more than humanity"; "undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron claw"- J.M.Barrie [syn: dour, forbidding, grim]
5: filled with melancholy and despondency ; "gloomy at the thought of what he had to face"; "gloomy predictions"; "a gloomy silence"; "took a grim view of the economy"; "the darkening mood"; "lonely and blue in a strange city"; "depressed by the loss of his job"; "a dispirited and resigned expression on her face"; "downcast after his defeat"; "feeling discouraged and downhearted" [syn: gloomy, grim, blue, depressed, dispirited, down, downcast, downhearted, down in the mouth, low, low-spirited]
6: causing dejection; "a blue day"; "the dark days of the war"; "a week of rainy depressing weather"; "a disconsolate winter landscape"; "the first dismal dispiriting days of November"; "a dark gloomy day"; "grim rainy weather" [syn: blue, dark, dingy, disconsolate, dismal, gloomy, grim, sorry, drab, drear, dreary]

Merriam Webster's

adjective (grimmer; grimmest) Etymology: Middle English, from Old English grimm; akin to Old High German grimm fierce, Greek chremetizein to neigh Date: before 12th century 1. fierce in disposition or action ; savage 2. a. stern or forbidding in action or appearance <a grim taskmaster> b. somber, gloomy 3. ghastly, repellent, or sinister in character <a grim tale> 4. unflinching, unyielding <grim determination> • grimly adverb • grimness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. (grimmer, grimmest) 1 of a stern or forbidding appearance. 2 harsh, merciless, severe. 3 ghastly, joyless, sinister (has a grim truth in it). 4 unpleasant, unattractive. Phrases and idioms: like grim death with great determination. Derivatives: grimly adv. grimness n. Etymology: OE f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Grim Grim, a. [Compar. Grimmer (-mer); superl. Grimmest.] [AS. grim; akin to G. grimm, equiv. to G. & D. grimmig, Dan. grim, grum, Sw. grym, Icel. grimmr, G. gram grief, as adj., hostile; cf. Gr. ?, a crushing sound, ? to neigh.] Of forbidding or fear-inspiring aspect; fierce; stern; surly; cruel; frightful; horrible. Whose grim aspect sets every joint a-shaking. --Shak. The ridges of grim war. --Milton. Syn: Syn.-- Fierce; ferocious; furious; horrid; horrible; frightful; ghastly; grisly; hideous; stern; sullen; sour.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(grimmer, grimmest) 1. A situation or piece of information that is grim is unpleasant, depressing, and difficult to accept. They painted a grim picture of growing crime... There was further grim economic news yesterday... The mood could not have been grimmer. ADJ • grimness ...an unrelenting grimness of tone. N-UNCOUNT 2. A place that is grim is unattractive and depressing in appearance. ...the tower blocks on the city's grim edges. ADJ 3. If a person or their behaviour is grim, they are very serious, usually because they are worried about something. (WRITTEN) She was a grim woman with a turned-down mouth... Her expression was grim and unpleasant. ADJ 4. If you say that something is grim, you think that it is very bad, ugly, or depressing. (INFORMAL) Things were pretty grim for a time. ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Fierce, ferocious, ruthless, cruel, savage. 2. Frightful, horrible, hideous, grisly, appalling, dire, horrid, terrific, dreadful, of forbidding look.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

Old Mr. Grim; death.

Moby Thesaurus

Spartan, Spartanic, adamant, adamantine, affording no hope, alarming, anguished, anxious, apathetic, appalling, astounding, astringent, atrocious, austere, authoritarian, awe-inspiring, awesome, awful, baneful, barbarous, barfy, beastly, beetle-browed, black, black-browed, bleak, bloodthirsty, bored, brutal, brutish, bum, cast-iron, certain, cheerless, cheesy, cold, comfortless, crappy, creepy, cruel, crummy, dark, dead set, decided, decorous, dejected, demanding, demure, depressed, despairing, desperate, despondent, determined, dire, direful, dirty, disconsolate, discontented, disgusted, dismal, dogged, dour, dread, dreaded, dreadful, drear, drearisome, dreary, dumpish, earnest, eerie, evil, evil-favored, evil-looking, exacting, exigent, fell, feral, ferocious, fiendish, fierce, firm, fixed, flagitious, flinty, forbidding, foreboding, forlorn, formal, formidable, frightening, frightful, frowning, funebrial, funereal, ghastly, ghoulish, gloomy, glowering, glum, godawful, goshawful, grave, gray, grim-faced, grim-visaged, grisly, grotesque, gruesome, grum, hairy, hard, hard-core, hard-favored, hard-featured, hard-visaged, harrowing, harsh, headstrong, heartless, heinous, hideous, homicidal, hopeless, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying, humorless, icky, ill-favored, ill-featured, ill-looking, immovable, immutable, implacable, impliable, in bad humor, in despair, inclement, inelastic, inevitable, inexorable, infestive, inflexible, inhuman, inhumane, iniquitous, intractable, intransigent, iron, irreconcilable, joyless, loathsome, long-faced, lowering, lurid, macabre, melancholy, merciless, meticulous, mirthless, miserable, monstrous, moodish, moody, mopey, moping, mopish, morbid, morose, mortal, mumpish, murderous, nauseated, nauseous, obdurate, obstinate, offensive, ominous, out of humor, out of sorts, pitiless, pleasureless, prey to malaise, punk, putrid, redoubtable, relentless, repelled, repugnant, repulsive, resolute, revolted, revolting, rigid, rigorous, rock-ribbed, rotten, rough, rugged, ruthless, sad, saturnine, savage, schrecklich, scowling, sedate, serious, set, severe, shitty, shocking, sickened, sinister, sober, sober-minded, sobersided, solemn, somber, sombrous, sorry, sorryish, staid, steadfast, steely, stern, stiff, stinking, stinky, stone-faced, stony, straight-faced, strict, stringent, stubborn, suffering angst, sulky, sullen, surly, terrible, terrific, terrifying, thoughtful, tough, tragic, tremendous, triste, truculent, unaffected, unalterable, unappeasable, unbending, unchangeable, uncheerful, uncheery, uncompromising, uneasy, unflinching, unforgiving, unfulfilled, ungentle, ungiving, ungratified, unhappy, unhopeful, unjoyful, unmirthful, unmoved, unmoving, unprepossessing, unquiet, unrelenting, unsatisfied, unsmiling, unsparing, unspeakable, unwavering, unyielding, vicious, vindictive, violent, vomity, weariful, wearisome, weary, weighty, wicked, without hope, wolfish, wretched, yecchy