grim

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɹɪm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪm

Etymology 1

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”).

Adjective

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:

     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.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

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.

Noun

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:

     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

Etymology 2

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.

Noun

grim (countable and uncountable, plural grims)

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

Derived terms

• grimful
• grimless

Danish

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Adjective

grim

1. ugly, unsightly
2. nasty

Inflection

Kalasha

Verb

grim

1. taking

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡrɪmː/

Adjective

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

1. grim, ugly, unsightly

Related terms

• gram

Etymology 2

From Old Norse grímr.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡriːm/

Noun

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

1. (folklore) a kind of wight

Derived terms

• fossegrim

Related terms

• grime

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡriːm/

Verb

grim

1. imperative of grime

References

• “grim” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡrim/

Adjective

grim (superlative grimmest)

1. Alternative form of grimm

Declension