gruesome
UK /ˈɡɹuːsəm/ · US /ˈɡɹusəm/ adjective
Forms gruesomer gruesomest grewsome
- adjective Repellently frightful and shocking; ghastly, horrific.
- adjective (informal, loosely) Awful, terrible. “The team was so unprepared that the way it played was just gruesome.”
- adjective (archaic, rare) Of a person: filled with fear; afraid, fearful.
Synonyms
grisly horrible affreux alarming spine-tingling appalling awful eldritch buggish butt-clenching buttock-clenching dismayful dreadful fearful flaysome flesh-crawling formidable freaky frightening frightensome ghastly grim macabre sick
Antonyms
ungruesome acceptable agreeable all right amazing as fine as Dick's hatband awesome beatific bene blissful bodacious bona
Etymology
From grue (“(archaic except Northern England, Scotland) to be frightened; to shudder with fear”) + -some (suffix meaning ‘characterized by some specific condition or quality, usually to a considerable degree’ forming adjectives and nouns), probably popularized by the Scottish novelist and poet Walter Scott (1771–1832): see, for example, the 1816 quotation.
* Danish grusom (“cruel; horrible”)
* Middle Dutch grousaem, grusaem (modern Dutch gruwzaam (“cruel; gruesome”))
* Middle High German grûsam, grûwesam (modern German grausam (“cruel”))
* Norwegian Bokmål grusom (“cruel; horrible”)
Webster’s 1913
- , Grue"some, a. Etym: [From a word akin to Dan. gru horror, terror + -some; cf. D. gruwzaam, G. grausam. Cf. Grisly.]
- Ugly; frightful.
- adjective Same as Grewsome. [Scot.]
Etymology [From a word akin to Dan. gru horror, terror + -some; cf. D. gruwzaam, G. grausam. Cf. Grisly.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “gruesome”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details