grievous
part of speech
adjective (grievous, more grievous)
meaning for a pupil
1) (formal) Very serious and harmful: a grievous mistake. tree →
2) (formal) Causing great sadness or pain: a grievous loss. tree →
3) (law, UK) «Grievous bodily harm» (GBH) is a serious crime of badly hurting someone. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history, Bible and old stories it marks serious wrongs, sins and losses. In UK news and law, GBH is a serious assault. In everyday speech it is rare and sounds formal or old-fashioned. Phrases: a grievous error, grievous loss, grievous bodily harm.
examples
- The general made a grievous mistake and lost the battle. tree →
- The death of the queen was a grievous loss to the country. tree →
- The man was charged with grievous bodily harm. tree →
- «I have sinned grievously,» said the knight in the story. tree →
- A grievous wound needs a doctor straight away. tree →
- Forgetting her birthday was not a grievous crime. tree →
- But at last the gods afflicted the country with a grievous pestilence, which made terrible havoc among the people. tree →
note
Pronounced GREE-vus (two syllables). A very common mistake is «GREE-vee-us» or spelling it «grievious»: there is no i before -ous. Related: grief, grieve, grievance.
In the corpora
- And the thing was very grievous in Abraham's sight on account of his son.
- and the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine which followeth; for it shall be very grievous.
- A grievous vision is declared unto me: 'The treacherous dealer dealeth treacherously, and the spoiler spoileth.
- They are all grievous revolters, going about with slanders; they are brass and iron; they all of them deal corruptly.
- My wound is grievous; but I said: 'This is but a sickness, and I must bear it.'
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «grievous» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.