Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Causing horror and repugnance; frightful and shocking: synonym: ghastly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Causing one to shudder; frightfully dismal or depressing; horribly repulsive.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Scot. Ugly; frightful. Same as grewsome.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Obsolete grue, to shudder (from Middle English gruen, from Middle Dutch grūwen or Middle Low German gruwen) + –some.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Compare Danish and Norwegian grusom ("horrible"), German grausam ("cruel").

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