grim

(grĭm)
adj., grim·mer, grim·mest.

1. Unrelenting; rigid.
2. Uninviting or unnerving in aspect; forbidding: "undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron claw" (J.M. Barrie).
3. Ghastly; sinister: "He made a grim jest at the horrifying nature of his wound" (Reginald Pound). See synonyms at ghastly.
4. Dismal; gloomy: a grim, rainy day.
5. Ferocious; savage: the grim advance of the pillaging army.

[Middle English, from Old English, fierce, severe.]

grimly grim'ly adv.
grimness grim'ness n.

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adjective

1. Firmly, often unreasonably immovable in purpose or will: adamant, adamantine, brassbound, die-hard, implacable, incompliant, inexorable, inflexible, intransigent, iron, obdurate, relentless, remorseless, rigid, stubborn, unbendable, unbending, uncompliant, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding. Idioms: stubborn as amuleox. See resist/yield.
2. Cold and forbidding: austere, bleak, dour, hard, harsh, severe, stark. See attitude/good attitude/bad attitude/neutral attitude, hot/cold/lukewarm.
3. Shockingly repellent: ghastly, grisly, gruesome, hideous, horrible, horrid, lurid, macabre. See beautiful/ugly.

adj

Definition: hopeless, horrible in manner, appearance
Antonyms: bright, cheerful, happy, hopeful, joyful, sunny

Several names of prehistoric landscape features such as earthworks, hill forts, and flint mines, include the element ‘Grim-’. The name Grimsditch occurs in eleven counties (in some, more than once); Grimsbury twice; Grime's Graves, Grimspound, and Grim's Hill once each. Presumably this Grim was a supernatural entity—perhaps Woden, since his Scandinavian equivalent, Odin, had ‘Grimr’ as a secondary name, and since the massive earthwork Wansdyke (Wiltshire) was undoubtedly named for him. However, there is also an Anglo-Saxon noun grima, meaning ‘goblin’ or ‘spectre’, so the situation is not clear-cut. Jennifer Westwood suggests that ‘it is a question of scale’, awe-inspiring features being ascribed to the god, small ones to the goblin (Westwood, 1985: 69-72).

The chapbook Life of Robin Goodfellow (1628) has among its characters a ‘Fairy Grim’ who boasts that he frightens many people by crying like a screech-owl at sick men's windows, that some call him the Black Dog of Newgate, and that when young people are making merry he comes in ‘in some feareful shape’ to scare them away and steal their food. The Yorkshire ‘church grim’ lurked inside the building, but would ‘maraud abroad’ in stormy weather; it might toll the death-knell at midnight, and peer from a window during funerals, showing by its expression whether the dead person was saved or damned (Wright, 1913: 194). It also sometimes showed itself as a death warning, in the form of a black dog.

IN BRIEF: Stern, harsh or unpleasant.

No lot is so hard, no aspect of things is so grim, but it relaxes before a hearty laugh. — G. S. Merriam.

Tutor's tip: A lion can be "grim" (fierce or cruel) while it is hunting a "grimme" (a kind of small antelope). Note: "Grime" is dirt that is usually on someone or something.

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a protein of Drosophila that functions, like mammalian Diablo, in promoting apoptosis. It binds IAP, releasing any associated caspase, and thereby is essential for apoptosis.

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For a list of words related to grim, see:

• Sad, Serious, Pessimistic, or Discontented

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See words rhyming with "grim."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Grim.

Dansk (Danish)
adj. - grum, uhyggelig, barsk, grusom, ubarmhjertig

idioms:

• grim reaper    manden med leen, døden
• like grim death    med et jernhårdt greb, til det sidste

Nederlands (Dutch)
akelig, onheilspellend, genadeloos

Français (French)
adj. - sinistre, effroyable, dur, acharné, terrible, grave (une expression), très mauvais (une nourriture), malade, ne pas se sentir bien, ne pas avoir le moral, macabre (un humour)

idioms:

• for grim death    (s'agripper) à qn de toutes ses forces
• grim reaper    la Faucheuse (représentation de la Mort)
• like grim death    (s'agripper) à qn de toutes ses forces

Deutsch (German)
adj. - grimmig, streng, grausam, trostlos

idioms:

• for grim death    sich mit aller Kraft [an etw. (Dat.)] festklammern
• grim reaper    der Sensenmann, Tod
• like grim death    mit aller Kraft

Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - φρικαλέος, βλοσυρός, σκυθρωπός, αγριωπός, απειλητικός, σκληρός, μακάβριος

idioms:

• grim reaper    Χάρος
• like grim death    απεγνωσμένα

Italiano (Italian)
spaventoso, spiacevole, accanito

idioms:

• grim reaper    angelo della morte
• like grim death    una brutta fine

Português (Portuguese)
adj. - severo, implacável, cruel, horrível

idioms:

• grim reaper    morte (f)
• like grim death    inflexivelmente, resolutamente

Русский (Russian)
грозный, мрачный, непреклонный

idioms:

• grim reaper    смерть
• like grim death    неотвратимый как смерть, неотвратимо как смерть

Español (Spanish)
adj. - espeluznante, escalofriante, desagradable, inflexible, inexorable, feroz, severo

idioms:

• for grim death    como si su vida dependiera de ello, con gran determinación
• grim reaper    la muerte, la parca
• like grim death    como si su vida dependiera de ello

Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - hård, sträng, barsk, otrevlig

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
冷酷的, 可怕的, 残忍的

idioms:

• grim reaper    死神
• like grim death    拼命似地

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 冷酷的, 可怕的, 殘忍的

idioms:

• grim reaper    死神
• like grim death    拼命似地

한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 엄한, 불굴의, 험상 궂은, 잔혹한

idioms:

• like grim death    결사적으로, 사신처럼

日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 厳しい, 断固とした, 厳然たる, 気味の悪い, ものすごい, 残酷な

idioms:

• grim reaper    死神
• like grim death    死神がとりついたように

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(صفه) شرس, , ضار, متجهم‏

עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - ‮אכזרי, מפחיד, שטני, נורא, רע, בלתי-נלאה‬

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