Adjacent Words

gruesome definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: 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]

Merriam Webster's

also grewsome adjective Etymology: alteration of earlier growsome, from English dialect grow, grue to shiver, from Middle English gruen, probably from Middle Dutch gr?wen; akin to Old High German ingr??n to shiver Date: circa 1700 inspiring horror or repulsion ; grisly Synonyms: see ghastly • gruesomely adverb • gruesomeness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. horrible, grisly, disgusting. Derivatives: gruesomely adv. gruesomeness n. Etymology: Sc. grue to shudder f. Scand. + -SOME(1)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Gruesome Grue"some, a. Same as Grewsome. [Scot.]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Grewsome Grew"some, Gruesome Grue"some, a. [From a word akin to Dan. gru horror, terror + -some; cf. D. gruwzaam, G. grausam. Cf. Grisly.] Ugly; frightful. Grewsome sights of war. --C. Kingsley.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Something that is gruesome is extremely unpleasant and shocking. There has been a series of gruesome murders in the capital. = grisly ADJ: usu ADJ n • gruesomely He has spent periods in prison, where he was gruesomely tortured. ...a gruesomely compelling series of interviews. ADV: ADV adj, ADV with v

Moby Thesaurus

abominable, appalling, astounding, awe-inspiring, awesome, awful, baleful, blue, cadaverous, corpselike, daunting, deadly, deathlike, deathly, deathly pale, dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, eerie, fearsome, fell, forbidding, formidable, foul, frightening, frightful, ghastly, ghostlike, ghostly, ghoulish, grim, grisly, grotesque, haggard, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying, livid, loathsome, lurid, macabre, morbid, mortuary, offensive, pale, redoubtable, repellent, repelling, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, schrecklich, shocking, sinister, terrible, terrific, terrifying, tremendous, uncanny, unearthly, wan, weird