GRIM (grimmer, grimmest)
Dictionary entry overview: What does grim mean?
• GRIM (adjective)
The adjective GRIM has 6 senses:
1. not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty
2. shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
3. harshly ironic or sinister
4. causing dejection
5. harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance
6. characterized by hopelessness; filled with gloom
Familiarity information: GRIM used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
• GRIM (adjective)
Meaning:
Not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty
Synonyms:
grim; inexorable; relentless; unrelenting; unappeasable; unforgiving; stern
Context examples:
grim determination / grim necessity / Russia's final hour, it seemed, approached with inexorable certainty / relentless persecution / the stern demands of parenthood
Similar:
implacable (incapable of being placated)
Meaning:
Shockingly repellent; inspiring horror
Synonyms:
ghastly; grisly; gruesome; macabre; grim; sick
Context examples:
ghastly wounds / the grim aftermath of the bombing / the grim task of burying the victims / a grisly murder / gruesome evidence of human sacrifice / macabre tales of war and plague in the Middle ages / macabre tortures conceived by madmen
Similar:
alarming (causing alarm or fear)
Meaning:
Harshly ironic or sinister
Synonyms:
mordant; grim; black
Context examples:
black humor / a grim joke / grim laughter / fun ranging from slapstick clowning ... to savage mordant wit
Similar:
sarcastic (expressing or expressive of ridicule that wounds)
Meaning:
Causing dejection
Synonyms:
drear; dismal; depressing; dreary; disconsolate; dispiriting; gloomy; dingy; grim; sorry; drab; dark; blue
Context examples:
a blue day / the dark days of the war / a week of rainy depressing weather / a disconsolate winter landscape / the first dismal dispiriting days of November / a dark gloomy day / grim rainy weather
Similar:
cheerless; uncheerful (lacking cheer; depressing)
Meaning:
Harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance
Synonyms:
forbidding; dour; grim
Context examples:
a dour, self-sacrificing life / a forbidding scowl / a grim man loving duty more than humanity / undoubtedly the grimmest part of him was his iron claw
Similar:
unpleasant (disagreeable to the senses, to the mind, or feelings)
Meaning:
Characterized by hopelessness; filled with gloom
Synonyms:
gloomy; darkening; grim
Context examples:
gloomy at the thought of what he had to face / gloomy predictions / a gloomy silence / took a grim view of the economy / the darkening mood
Similar:
hopeless (without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success)
