griev·ous

(grē′vəs)

adj.

1. Causing grief, pain, or anguish: a grievous loss.

2. Serious or dire; grave: a grievous crime.

[Anglo-Norman grevous, from grever, to harm, aggrieve, from Latin gravāre, to burden; see grieve.]

griev′ous·ly adv.

griev′ous·ness n.

Usage Note: The pronunciation of grievous with three syllables as (grē′vē-əs), written as though there were an extra i in the spelling of the word, is commonly heard but is roundly criticized as a mispronunciation. Ninety percent of the Usage Panel in 2005 found the three-syllable pronunciation to be unacceptable.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

grievous

(ˈɡriːvəs)

adj

1. very severe or painful: a grievous injury.

2. very serious; heinous: a grievous sin.

3. showing or marked by grief: a grievous cry.

4. causing great pain or suffering: a grievous attack.

ˈgrievously adv

ˈgrievousness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

griev•ous

(ˈgri vəs)

adj.

1. causing grief or great sorrow: a grievous loss.

2. causing serious harm; flagrant; atrocious: a grievous offense.

3. characterized by great pain or suffering: arrested for causing grievous bodily harm.

4. burdensome or oppressive: a grievous tax.

5. full of or expressing grief; sorrowful: a grievous cry.

[1250–1300; Middle English < Old French]

griev′ous•ly, adv.

griev′ous•ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.	1.	grievous - causing fear or anxiety by threatening great harm; "a dangerous operation"; "a grave situation"; "a grave illness"; "grievous bodily harm"; "a serious wound"; "a serious turn of events"; "a severe case of pneumonia"; "a life-threatening disease" life-threatening, dangerous, grave, serious, severe critical - being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency; "a critical shortage of food"; "a critical illness"; "an illness at the critical stage"
	2.	grievous - causing or marked by grief or anguish; "a grievous loss"; "a grievous cry"; "her sigh was heartbreaking"; "the heartrending words of Rabin's granddaughter" heartbreaking, heartrending sorrowful - experiencing or marked by or expressing sorrow especially that associated with irreparable loss; "sorrowful widows"; "a sorrowful tale of death and despair"; "sorrowful news"; "even in laughter the heart is sorrowful"- Proverbs 14:13
	3.	grievous - of great gravity or crucial import; requiring serious thought; "grave responsibilities"; "faced a grave decision in a time of crisis"; "a grievous fault"; "heavy matters of state"; "the weighty matters to be discussed at the peace conference" grave, weighty, heavy important, of import - of great significance or value; "important people"; "the important questions of the day"
	4.	grievous - shockingly brutal or cruel; "murder is an atrocious crime"; "a grievous offense against morality"; "a grievous crime"; "no excess was too monstrous for them to commit" atrocious, flagitious, monstrous evil - morally bad or wrong; "evil purposes"; "an evil influence"; "evil deeds"

grievous

adjective

1. deplorable, shocking, appalling, dreadful, outrageous, glaring, intolerable, monstrous, shameful, unbearable, atrocious, heinous, lamentable, egregious Their loss would be a grievous blow to our engineering industries.
deplorable pleasant, delightful

2. severe, damaging, heavy, wounding, grave, painful, distressing, dreadful, harmful, afflicting, calamitous, injurious He survived in spite of suffering grievous injuries.
severe mild, trivial, insignificant, unimportant

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

grievous

adjective

1. Causing sorrow or regret:

deplorable, doleful, dolorous, lamentable, mournful, regrettable, rueful, sad, sorrowful, woeful.

2. Causing or marked by danger or pain, for example:

dangerous, grave, serious, severe.

Translations

مُؤْلِم، موجِع، خَطير

těžkývážný

frygtelig

alvarlegur

hazinüzücü

grievous

[ˈgriːvəs]

A. ADJ [loss etc] → doloroso, penoso; [blow] → severo; [pain] → fuerte; [crime, offence, error] → grave; [task] → penoso

B. CPD grievous bodily harm N (Jur) → daños mpl físicos graves, lesiones fpl corporales graves

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

grievous

[ˈgriːvəs] adj [loss, blow, damage] → grave, cruel(le)grievous bodily harm n → coups mpl et blessures fpl

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

grievous

adj (form) damage, injury, suffering, blow, setback, crime, neglect → schwer; news → schmerzlich; error → schwerwiegend, schwer wiegend; injustice, wrong → schreiend; his death is a grievous loss → sein Tod ist ein schwerer or schmerzlicher Verlust; grievous bodily harm (Jur) → schwere Körperverletzung

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

grievous

[ˈgriːvəs] adj (pain) → atroce, intenso/a; (injuries, fault, loss) → grave; (blow) → pesante; (news) → triste, doloroso/a; (crime) → atroce, orrendo/a

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

grieve

(griːv) verb

1. to cause to feel great sorrow. Your wickedness grieves me deeply.

2. to feel sorrow.

ˈgrievous adjective

severe or very bad. He was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm (= very serious injuries) on the old man.

grievous

a. penoso-a, doloroso-a.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Now I say, mother, pray don't take to going there regularly, for if I was to see your good-humoured face that has always made home cheerful, turned into a grievous one, and the baby trained to look grievous too, and to call itself a young sinner (bless its heart) and a child of the devil (which is calling its dead father names); if I was to see this, and see little Jacob looking grievous likewise, I should so take it to heart that I'm sure I should go and list for a soldier, and run my head on purpose against the first cannon-ball I saw coming my way.'

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On his replying that he supposed it would be the prow, the Man said, "Death would not be grievous to me, if I could only see my Enemy die before me."

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Children were born to them and Thebes prospered under his rule, but again a grievous plague fell upon the city.

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It did not occur to the chief justice that nothing but the most grievous tyranny could so soon have changed the people's hearts.

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So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry.

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ISMENE To me, Antigone, no word of friends Has come, or glad or grievous, since we twain Were reft of our two brethren in one day By double fratricide; and since i' the night Our Argive leaguers fled, no later news Has reached me, to inspirit or deject.

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"There is richer soil in the bottoms," returned the old man calmly, "and you have passed millions of acres to get to this dreary spot, where he who loves to till the 'arth might have received bushels in return for pints, and that too at the cost of no very grievous labour.

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A man of honour and self-respect such as I am finds it painful and grievous to have to consort with men who would deprive him of both.

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But a grumpy recluse cannot worry his subordinates: whereas the man in whom the sense of duty is strong (or, perhaps, only the sense of self-importance), and who persists in airing on deck his moroseness all day - and perhaps half the night - becomes a grievous infliction.

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And the escort, as if afraid, in the grievous condition they themselves were in, of giving way to the pity they felt for the prisoners and so rendering their own plight still worse, treated them with particular moroseness and severity.

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I have met with grievous mishaps by sea and land, and have been long held in bonds among the heathen-folk to the southward; and am now brought hither by this Indian to be redeemed out of my captivity.

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A very few of them, in fact, passing, in constant sight of my pupils, without a fresh incident, sufficed to give to grievous fancies and even to odious memories a kind of brush of the sponge.

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