grim
stern and admitting of no appeasement or compromise: grim determination; grim necessity.
of a sinister or ghastly character: a grim joke.
having a harsh, surly, forbidding, or morbid air: a grim man but a just one; a grim countenance.
fierce, savage, or cruel: War is a grim business.
unpleasant or repellant: Scrubbing toilets is a grim task that no one likes doing.
Origin of grim
1Other words for grim
Opposites for grim
Other words from grim
- grim·ly, adverb
- grim·ness, noun
Words Nearby grim
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use grim in a sentence
The Council is also set to hear from city staff Tuesday on the grim five-year outlook for funding all the necessary improvements to the city’s roads, streets, drains, pipes and all the rest.
San Diego’s Infrastructure Deficit Is Really a Stormwater Deficit | Andrew Keatts | February 8, 2021 | Voice of San DiegoIt’s because of surfing that I still know how to smile when things are otherwise grim.
Regulators increasingly viewed Amazon as a threat to competition, and the company’s own workers at times told grim tales about their mistreatment, as they sought to carry out Bezos’s mission to create a consumer-first “everything store.”
Jeff Bezos stepping down as Amazon CEO, transitioning to executive chair role | Jay Greene, Tony Romm | February 4, 2021 | Washington PostHe warned it will be a months-long and difficult process to distribute vaccines, and characterized himself as a “straight shooter” for offering that grim timeline.
Hogan urges resilience in State of State speech, warns of grim vaccination timeline | Erin Cox, Ovetta Wiggins | February 4, 2021 | Washington PostIf one can summon any optimism nearly a year into a grim and persistent pandemic, this is the moment to do it.
These were conversations that took a fairly grim twist pretty quickly.
I Tried to Warn You About Sleazy Billionaire Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 | Vicky Ward | January 7, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTThe grim instability of shelter life is hardly a recipe for success under the best of circumstances.
His First Day Out Of Jail After 40 Years: Adjusting To Life Outside | Justin Rohrlich | January 3, 2015 | THE DAILY BEASTBut if the goal is to maintain any hope—grim as it is— for serious negotiations leading to a two state solution.
Why We Should Delay The Israel-Palestinian Peace Process | Aaron David Miller | December 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAlan Gross was in a cheery mood, having survived a grim five-year stint in a Cuban prison.
Castro's Hipster Apologists Want to Keep Cuba ‘Authentically’ Poor | Michael Moynihan | December 18, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe worst may be over for many of the refugees, but their first look at life in Europe is pretty grim.
Inside the Smuggling Networks Flooding Europe with Refugees | Barbie Latza Nadeau | December 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut Ulm was only the commencement of the campaign, and even after Austerlitz Napoleon pursued the enemy with grim resolution.
Napoleon's Marshals | R. P. Dunn-PattisonWar turns them from making the glittering superfluities of peace to making its grim engines of destruction.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice | Stephen LeacockAs he read, a look of surprise came over his face, and then his countenance grew stern and grim.
The Courier of the Ozarks | Byron A. DunnTaking his stand at the end of the desk, he made MacRae reiterate in detail the grim happenings of that night.
Raw Gold | Bertrand W. SinclairBy every art known to the wily Porter did he try to mislead his pursuers; but they hung on to his trail like grim death.
The Courier of the Ozarks | Byron A. Dunn
British Dictionary definitions for grim
/ (ɡrɪm) /
stern; resolute: grim determination
harsh or formidable in manner or appearance
harshly ironic or sinister: grim laughter
cruel, severe, or ghastly: a grim accident
archaic, or poetic fierce: a grim warrior
informal unpleasant; disagreeable
hold on like grim death to hold very firmly or resolutely
Origin of grim
1Derived forms of grim
- grimly, adverb
- grimness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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