- looking or sounding very serious
- a grim face/look/smile
- She looked grim.
- with a look of grim determination on his face
- He set about the task with grim concentration.
- grim-faced police officers
Extra Examples- There was a grim smile on her face as she approached.
- They clung on to the edge of the boat with grim determination.
Definitions on the go
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- unpleasant and depressing
- James had some rather grim news.
- We face the grim prospect of still higher unemployment.
- Despite the grim forecast, the number of deaths was slightly down on last year.
- The outlook is pretty grim.
- This latest attack is a grim reminder of how vulnerable our airports are to terrorist attack.
- Booth paints a grim picture of life in the next century.
- a grim struggle for survival
- Things are looking grim for workers in the building industry.
- The accident serves as a grim reminder of what drinking and driving can do.
- (of a place or building) not attractive; depressing
- The house looked grim and dreary in the rain.
- the grim walls of the prison
- [not before noun] (British English, informal) ill
- I feel grim this morning.
- [not usually before noun] (British English, informal) of very low quality
- Their performance was fairly grim, I'm afraid!
Word OriginOld English, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch grim and German grimm.
Idioms
See grim in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee grim in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishhang/hold on for/like grim death (British English)
(also hang/hold on for dear life North American English, British English)
- (informal) to hold somebody/something very tightly or keep something in a very determined way because you are afraid
- You get a job, then you get a mortgage and then you hang on like grim death to your job to pay off the mortgage.
Check pronunciation:
grim