Search the Dictionary

ng grief or sorrow; painful; afflictive; hard to bear; offensive; harmful. The famine was grievous in the land. Gen. xii. 10. The thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight. Gen. xxi 11.

ict some great injury or hurt upon, causing continued pain or mental distress; to trouble grievously; to torment. They did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. Exod. i. 11. That which was the worst now least afflicts me. Milton.

Grievously painful; distressing; afflictive; as, an afflicting event. -- Af*flict"ing*ly, adv.

The cause of continued pain of body or mind, as sickness, losses, etc.; an instance of grievous distress; a pain or grief. To repay that money will be a biting affliction. Shak.

To atone; to be punished for. And grievously hath Cæzar answered it. Shak.

Very grievous or violent; terrible; as, atrocious distempers. [Obs.] Cheyne.

In a bad manner; poorly; not well; unskillfully; imperfectly; unfortunately; grievously; so as to cause harm; disagreeably; seriously.

That which is borne with labor or difficulty; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive. Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, To all my friends a burden grown. Swift.

Grievous to be borne; causing uneasiness or fatigue; oppressive. The debt immense of endless gratitude So burdensome. Milton.

murmuring; accusation; fault-finding. I poured out my complaint before him. Ps. cxlii. 2. Grievous complaints of you. Shak.

That which has the power of fretting or irritating. Such speeches . . . are grievous corrosives. Hooker. -- Cor*ro"sive*ly, adv. -- Cor*ro"sive*ness, n.

To oppress or burden grievously. Thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway. Deut. xxviii. 33.

aff, and wielded with one hand; hence, any heavy stick used as a weapon. He getteth him a grievous crabtree cudgel and . . . falls to rating of them as if they were dogs. Bunyan. Cudgel play, a fight or sportive contest with cudgels. -- To cross the cudgels, to forbear or give up the contest; -- a phrase borrowed from…

ness to; to furnish with that which will be a cause of deep trouble; to afflict or injure grievously; to harass or torment. On impious realms and barbarous kings impose Thy plagues, and curse 'em with such sons as those. Pope. To curse by bell, book, and candle. See under Bell.

At a high rate or price; grievously. He buys his mistress dearly with his throne. Dryden.

Worthy of being deplored or lamented; lamentable; causing grief; hence, sad; calamitous; grievous; wretched; as, life's evils are deplorable. Individual sufferers are in a much more deplorable conditious than any others. Burke.

Secretly; grievously; mournfully. [Obs.] Spenser.

To make grievous, or more grievous or malignant; to aggravate; to imbitter; as, to exasperate enmity. To exasperate the ways of death. Sir T. Browne.

To make a gash, or long, deep incision in; -- applied chiefly to incisions in flesh. Grievously gashed or gored to death. Hayward.

Not easy to bear; burdensome; oppressive; hard to endure or accomplish; hence, grievous, afflictive; as, heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc. The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod. 1 Sam. v. 6. The king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make. Shak. Sent hither to impart the heavy news. W…