grisly

Meaning

Adj

1. Horrifyingly repellent; gruesome, terrifying.
2. (obsolete) Obsolete form of grizzly.
3. Misspelling of gristly.

Noun

Obsolete form of grizzly (“type of bear”).

Adv

In a horrible or terrible manner; in a terrifying way.

Synonyms

ghastly

horrible

gruesome

macabre

nasty

bleak

dismal

dreary

dreadful

horrid

horrific

awful

grim

terrible

hideous

quakingly

atrocious

tremblingly

frightful

dredful

sick

🤢

abominable

terrifying

fearsome

dread

horrendous

dreaded

dire

god-awful

outrageous

godawful

awing

bad

👎

creepy

detestable

direful

disgusting

eerie

formidable

foul

ghoulish

gory

grotesque

gruesomely

heinous

monstrous

morbid

raging

redoubtable

repellent

repugnant

repulsive

revolting

scary

shocking

shuddery

tremendous

ugly

unspeakable

Hyphenated as

gris‧ly

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɡɹɪzli/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: grisely

Inherited from Old English: grisliċ

Inherited from Old English: ongrislic

Cognate with Danish: grusom

Cognate with Swedish: gräslig

Cognate with Middle Dutch: grezelijc

Cognate with Dutch: griezelig

Cognate with Middle High German: grisenlich

Cognate with German: grässlich

In summary

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).