grisly

英 ['ɡrɪzli] 美 ['ɡrɪzli]

adj.可怕的；恐怖的

◉词源

源自古英语 grislic（可怕的、恐怖的），可能与 gris（恐惧）相关，14世纪起指引起恐怖或厌恶的事物，常描述血腥或残酷场景，后固定为“grisly”而非“grizzly”（灰白的，常误用）。构词成分：词根 gris（恐惧、可怕） + 后缀 -ly（具有……性质的）。

◉外刊例句

《The New York Times》，2025

The grisly killings of a husband and wife set off a new wave of sectarian unrest.

一对夫妇的骇人杀戮引发新一波宗派动乱。

《The New York Times》，2024）

The bones were spread out... bearing marks of a grisly end.

骨头散布开来……带有可怕结局的痕迹。

◉经典名著

The crime scene was grisly, with blood everywhere.《The Tell-Tale Heart》，1843

犯罪现场骇人，到处是血。

A grisly discovery shocked the small town. Mary Shelley《Frankenstein》，1818

一个可怕的发现震惊了小镇。

◉ Usage Examples

(1) Robbing graves is grisly.

(2) The sheriff is investigating a grisly murder.

(3) The girls screamed when the grisly remains of the half-eaten corpses on the screen were shown.

(1) 盗墓是可怕的。

(2) 探长在调查一起令人发指的谋杀案。

(3) 当屏幕上显示出尸体被吃掉一半的恐怖残骸时，女孩子们尖叫起来。

◉ Usage Notes

Grisly means disgusting and bloody, absolutely repulsive and horrible. There’s a wonderfully creepy movie about a man who suffers a grisly death at the hands of the grizzly bears he was studying.

Do you like grisly horror movies? You might think that the reason the word grisly is so creepy, gruesome, and terrifying is somehow related to gristle, those really nasty tough parts you find in meat. But no, this is not the case. Old English grislic, the root of the word, means "horrible, dreadful." If something is gory and gross, it’s grisly.

◉柯林斯词典

1. [ADJ-GRADED 能被表示程度的副词或介词词组修饰的形容词]令人极度厌恶的；恐怖的；可怕的 also grizzly. Something that is grisly is extremely unpleasant, and usually involves death and violence. [usu ADJ n]

...two horrifically grisly murders.

两起骇人听闻的谋杀案