/ ˈgruːsəm; NAmE / adjective
very unpleasant and filling you with horror, usually because it is connected with death or injury :
a gruesome murder
gruesome pictures of dead bodies
( humorous )
We spent a week in a gruesome apartment in Miami.
► grue·some·ly adverb
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WORD ORIGIN
late 16th cent.: from Scots grue to feel horror, shudder (of Scandinavian origin) + -some . Rare before the late 18th cent., the word was popularized by Sir Walter Scott.