D. H. Lawrence
Did you know?
An angry grizzly bear could certainly inspire fear, so grizzly and grisly must be related, right? Grizzly comes from the Middle English adjective grisel, meaning "gray." Like its close relative grizzled, grizzly means "sprinkled or streaked with gray." In other words, the grizzly bear got its name because the hairs of its brownish to buff coat usually have silver or pale tips, creating a grizzled effect, not because it causes terror. Grisly is related to Old English grislic, which comes from a verb meaning "to fear" and which gives grisly its "terrifying" sense.
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Examples of grisly in a Sentence
Dom Luszczyszyn, The Athletic, 9 Jan. 2025
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Janice kept the details of Melvin’s grisly murder from her young son, intent on providing him an idyllic childhood.
—Cheyenne Roundtree, Rolling Stone, 9 Jan. 2025
No information was provided regarding the couple’s daughter, who was reportedly home at the time of the grisly incident.
—Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News, 8 Jan. 2025
Alongside Lantern legend Hal Jordan (Nathan Fillion), the pair are drawn into a dark mystery on Earth revolving around a grisly murder in middle America.
—Dan Perry, Newsweek, 3 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Grisly.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grisly. Accessed 19 Jan. 2025.
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