grisly¹

[griz-lee] /ˈgrɪz li/

adjective, grislier, grisliest.

causing a shudder or feeling of horror; horrible; gruesome:

a grisly murder.

formidable; grim:

a grisly countenance.

Origin

before 1150; Middle English; Old English grislīc horrible; cognate with Old High German grīsenlīh

Related forms

grisliness, noun

grisly²

[gris-lee] /ˈgrɪs li/

adjective, grislier, grisliest. Obsolete

gristly.

Examples from the web for grisly

grisly evidence of these killings has been surfacing all week.
Scientists have discovered a tiny, one-celled parasite that causes a grisly and fatal infection in krill.
Lao villagers swap grisly tales of corpses dumped in the river.
But how and what, exactly, caused the grisly scourge has sparked a boxing match of sorts within the pages of scientific journals.
The odd thing is that the grisly tale has remained dormant for so long.
And several kinds of dreadfulness are handled with a grisly skill.
But the event already has the grisly carnival atmosphere of a public execution.
Yes, he declined as he became a kind of grisly icon.
So far there have been four such grisly killings and nine people have been arrested.
Surgical procedures can be grisly, but dissections are somehow worse.

British Dictionary definitions for grisly

grisly¹

/ˈɡrɪzlɪ/

adjective -lier, -liest

causing horror or dread; gruesome

Derived Forms

grisliness, noun

grizzly

Word Origin

Old English grislic; related to Old Frisian grislik, Old High German grīsenlīh

grisly²

/ˈɡrɪzlɪ/

noun (pl) -lies

(obsolete) a variant spelling of grizzly

Word Origin and History for grisly

adj.

Old English grislic "horrible, dreadful," from root of grisan "to shudder, fear" (cf. Old Frisian grislik "horrible," Middle Dutch grisen "to shudder," Dutch griezelen, German grausen "to shudder, fear," Old High German grisenlik "horrible"), of unknown origin; Watkins connects it with the PIE root *ghrei- "to rub," on notion of "to grate on the mind." Cf. also gruesome, to which it probably is connected in some way.