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Grisly
Definitions
- 1 Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
"The photographs of the killings depict a grisly scene."
- 2 Obsolete form of grizzly. alt-of, obsolete
"old squirrels that turn grisly"
- 3 Misspelling of gristly. alt-of, misspelling
- 1 shockingly repellent; inspiring horror wordnet
- 1 In a horrible or terrible manner; in a terrifying way. obsolete
"[A] very fair young gentlewoman [Sir Roger Wentworth's daughter], of twelve years of age, in marvellous manner vexed and tormented by our ghostly enemy, the devil, her mind alienated and raving, with despising and blaspheming of God, and hatred of all hallowed things, […] finally being brought and laid before the image of our blessed lady, was there, in the sight of many worshipful people, so grievously tormented, and in face, eyes, look, and countenance, so grisly changed, with her mouth drawn aside, and her eyes laid out upon her cheeks, that it was a terrible sight to behold. And after many marvellous things, […] restored to their good state, perfectly cured and suddenly."
- 1 Obsolete form of grizzly (“type of bear”). alt-of, obsolete
Etymology
From Middle English grisely, grysly, grissliȝ, griselich, grislich, from Old English grisliċ (“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”), from grīsan (“to shudder with horror; to tremble, to be terrified; to make tremble, to terrify; to agrise, grise”) (unattested but implied in āgrīsan) + -lic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’). The word may also be an aphetic form of Old English ongrislic, agrisenliċ, the past participle of agrīsan (“to agrise”). Compare Danish grusom, Swedish gräslig, Middle Dutch grezelijc (modern Dutch griezelig), Middle High German grisenlich (modern German grässlich, grausen).
From Middle English grisely, grysly, grissliȝ, griselich, grislich, from Old English grisliċ (“grisly, horrible; dreadful, horrid”), from grīsan (“to shudder with horror; to tremble, to be terrified; to make tremble, to terrify; to agrise, grise”) (unattested but implied in āgrīsan) + -lic (suffix forming adjectives meaning ‘characteristic of, pertaining to’). The word may also be an aphetic form of Old English ongrislic, agrisenliċ, the past participle of agrīsan (“to agrise”). Compare Danish grusom, Swedish gräslig, Middle Dutch grezelijc (modern Dutch griezelig), Middle High German grisenlich (modern German grässlich, grausen).
From grisle (“horror, terror”) + -ly; compare Middle Dutch griselike, Middle Low German grislike.
See also for "grisly"
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