grim

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ɡɹɪm/

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm

From Middle English grim, from Old English grimm, from Proto-West Germanic *grimm, from Proto-Germanic *grimmaz, from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrem- (“to resound, thunder, grumble, roar”).

grim (comparative grimmer, superlative grimmest)

1. Dismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding.

   Life was grim in many northern industrial towns.

   • 2019 August 30, Jonathan Watts, “Amazon fires show world heading for point of no return, says UN”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Cristiana Paşca Palmer, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said the destruction of the world’s biggest rainforest was a grim reminder that a fresh approach needed to stabilise the climate and prevent ecosystems from declining to a point of no return, with dire consequences for humanity.

   • 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:

     It's been a grim start to the year.

2. Rigid and unrelenting.

   His grim determination enabled him to win.

3. Ghastly or sinister.

   A grim castle overshadowed the village.

   • 2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, “The Hunger Games”, in AV Club:

     In movie terms, it suggests Paul Verhoeven in Robocop/Starship Troopers mode, an R-rated bloodbath where the grim spectacle of children murdering each other on television is bread-and-circuses for the age of reality TV, enforced by a totalitarian regime to keep the masses at bay.

4. Disgusting; gross.

   – Wanna see the dead rat I found in my fridge?
   – Mate, that is grim!

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 1, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 1:

     Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet;

5. (obsolete) Fierce, cruel, furious.

grim (third-person singular simple present grims, present participle grimming, simple past and past participle grimmed)

1. (transitive, rare) To make grim; to give a stern or forbidding aspect to.

grim (plural grims)

1. (MLE, slang, probably a fashionable word around 2006, now dated) A promiscuous woman.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:promiscuous woman

   • 2006 July 1, “Grim” (track 8), in Wiley (lyrics), Eskiboy: Da 2nd Phaze‎^[2]:

     You got a new girl and she looks choong (Choong)
     But you didn't know your girl was a grim
     […]
     Your girl she's a grim, I wouldn't have no grim as my ting

From Middle English grim, grym, greme, from Old English *grimu, *grimmu, grima, from Proto-Germanic *grimmį̄ (“anger, wrath”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrem- (“to resound, thunder, grumble, roar”). Cognate with Middle Dutch grimme, Middle High German grimme f (“anger”), modern German Grimm m.

grim (countable and uncountable, plural grims)

1. (obsolete) Anger, wrath.
2. (obsolete) A specter, ghost, haunting spirit.

• grimful
• grimless

From Old Norse grimmr, from Proto-Germanic *grimmaz.

• IPA^(key): [ɡ̊ʁɛmˀ]

grim

1. ugly, unsightly
2. nasty

Inflection of grim
	Positive	Comparative	Superlative
Indefinte common singular	grim	grimmere	grimmest2
Indefinite neuter singular	grimt	grimmere	grimmest2
Plural	grimme	grimmere	grimmest2
Definite attributive1	grimme	grimmere	grimmeste
1) When an adjective is applied predicatively to something definite, the corresponding "indefinite" form is used. 2) The "indefinite" superlatives may not be used attributively.

grim

1. taking

From Old Norse grimmr, from Proto-Germanic *grimmaz.

• IPA^(key): /ɡrɪmː/

grim (masculine and feminine grim, neuter grimt, definite singular and plural grimme, comparative grimmare, superlative grimmast, definite superlative grimmaste)

1. grim, ugly, unsightly

• gram

From Old Norse grímr.

• IPA^(key): /ɡriːm/

grim m (definite singular grimen, indefinite plural grimar, definite plural grimane)

1. (folklore) a kind of wight

• fossegrim

• grime

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• IPA^(key): /ɡriːm/

grim

1. imperative of grime

• “grim” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

• IPA^(key): /ɡrim/

grim (superlative grimmest)

1. Alternative form of grimm