Grim
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 A promiscuous woman. Multicultural-London-English, dated, slang
"You got a new girl and she looks choong (Choong) But you didn't know your girl was a grim […] Your girl she's a grim, I wouldn't have no grim as my ting"
- 2 Anger, wrath. countable, obsolete, uncountable
- 3 A specter, ghost, haunting spirit. countable, obsolete, uncountable
- 1 To make grim; to give a stern or forbidding aspect to. rare, transitive
- 1 Dismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding.
"Life was grim in many northern industrial towns."
- 2 Rigid and unrelenting.
"His grim determination enabled him to win."
- 3 Ghastly or sinister.
"A grim castle overshadowed the village."
- 4 Disgusting; gross.
"– Wanna see the dead rat I found in my fridge? – Mate, that is grim!"
- 5 Fierce, cruel, furious. obsolete
- 1 shockingly repellent; inspiring horror wordnet
- 2 causing dejection wordnet
- 3 filled with melancholy and despondency wordnet
- 4 not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty wordnet
- 5 harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance wordnet
Show 1 more definition
- 6 harshly ironic or sinister wordnet
- 1 An English surname
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"From the doctor's grim expression, it was clear he had somber news for the patient."
Etymology
From Middle English grim, from Old English grimm, from Proto-West Germanic *grimm, from Proto-Germanic *grimmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrem- (“to resound, thunder, grumble, roar”).
From Middle English grim, grym, greme, from Old English *grimu, *grimmu, grima, from Proto-Germanic *grimmį̄ (“anger, wrath”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrem- (“to resound, thunder, grumble, roar”). Cognate with Middle Dutch grimme, Middle High German grimme f (“anger”), modern German Grimm m.
Probably derived from Old English *Grīm, Old Norse Grímr (literally “masked person”).
Related phrases
More for "grim"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.