Adjective

(en-adj)

repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly

* 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 6

In the middle of the floor lay a skeleton, every vestige of flesh gone from the bones to which still clung the mildewed and moldered remnants of what had once been clothing. Upon the bed lay a similar gruesome thing, but smaller, while in a tiny cradle near-by was a third, a wee mite of a skeleton.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=May 04 , title=Bin Laden was unarmed when shot dead citation , passage=Jay Carney said that the US was considering whether to release photos of bin Laden after he was killed on Sunday but that the photos were gruesome and could be inflammatory.}}

Adjective

(en adjective)

Of or pertaining to ghouls.

Of or pertaining to corpses and graverobbing.

* 1922 — , Herbert West: Reanimator

We had that afternoon dug a grave in the cellar, and would have to fill it by dawn -- for although we had fixed a lock on the house, we wished to shun even the remotest risk of a ghoulish discovery.

Fascinated by corpses.