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Grim vs Dire - What's the difference?

grim | dire |

As adjectives the difference between grim and dire

is that grim is dismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding while dire is warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.

As a proper noun Grim

is {{surname|A=An|English}}, probably derived from Old English grimm or Old Norse grimr or grimmr.

grim

English

Adjective

(grimmer)
  • dismal and gloomy, cold and forbidding
  • Life was grim in many northern industrial towns.
  • rigid and unrelenting
  • His grim determination enabled him to win.
  • 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.
  • (UK, slang) disgusting; gross
  • Wanna see the dead rat I found in my fridge? —Mate, that is grim !

    dire

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.
  • Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2014-06-14, volume=411, issue=8891, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= It's a gas , passage=One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains.
  • Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.
  • (label) Bad in quality, awful, terrible.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 10, author=Arindam Rej, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Norwich 4-2 Newcastle , passage=A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.}}

    Derived terms

    * direful * direly * direness * dire sisters * dire straits * dire wolf

    See also

    * voir dire

    Anagrams

    * * * ----