gnarly

[nahr-lee] /ˈnɑr li/
adjective, gnarlier, gnarliest.
1.
gnarled.
2.
Slang. distasteful; distressing; offensive; gross:
a comic noted for his gnarly humor.
Origin
1820-30; gnarl1 + -y1
Related forms
gnarliness, noun
Examples from the web for gnarly
  • Below you will see the struggle it takes for an entire team of fishermen to catch this gnarly beast.
  • It's a palace of thrash, with as many gnarly facets as the best skate parks.
  • Near the mouth of the river is a sandy spit with low buildings decorated with oyster shells and gnarly driftwood.
  • And even the burliest sport coats can't defend against gnarly torrents of snow, sleet or bitter cold.
  • With gnarly computations one has to go through the whole messy detail step by step.
  • Simulating an economy is almost certainly a gnarly computation.
  • And sometimes cooking leaches out overly strong or gnarly flavors.
  • The demon ended up being an ancient sculpture of a gnarly monster, buried along with other stone sculptures.
  • Bark on smaller branches develops corky wings, or ridges, giving it a gnarly appearance.
  • On a knotty, gnarly block of wood you'll need to start your split from the outside edges and slab off the sides.
British Dictionary definitions for gnarly

gnarly

/ˈnɑːlɪ/
adjective
1.
another word for gnarled
2.
(NZ, informal) good; great
3.
(surfing, slang) difficult and dangerous
Word Origin and History for gnarly
adj.

1829, "knotted and rugged," from gnarl (see gnarled) + -y (2). Picked up 1970s as surfer slang to describe a dangerous wave; it had spread in teen slang by 1982, where it meant both "excellent" and "disgusting."

Slang definitions & phrases for gnarly

gnarly

adjective
  1. Excellent; wonderful; cool, hairy, great: That girl is gnarly. She goes to every party there is
  2. Disgusting: So, when the halls became a little too gnarly for Principal Charles Lutgen/ ''Gnarly'' means disgusting

[1980s+ Teenagers; said to have originated among 1970s surfers, describing a dangerous wave; this sense persisted among skateboarders until at least 1988]


gnarly in Technology

jargon
/nar'lee/ Both obscure and hairy. "Yow! - the tuned assembler implementation of BitBlt is really gnarly!" From a similar but less specific usage in surfer slang.
[Jargon File]
(1996-09-17)