How to Use grievous in a Sentence

grievous

adjective
  • He took a foolish financial risk and suffered a grievous loss.
  • No sin is too grievous for His mercy.
    — Chris Roemer, Baltimore Sun, 2 Apr. 2026
  • Their injuries were grievous, and there were deaths every week.
    — Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Jan. 2022
  • The first time might be chalked up to a rookie mistake — a grievous one, no doubt.
    — Jay Cost, Washington Examiner, 21 Jan. 2021
  • Can it be done without grievous injury?
    — Joe Salas june 07, New Atlas, 7 June 2026
  • Yet the idea that something that grievous could simply be healed or erased does not make sense in my world.
    — Emma Specter, Vogue, 8 Apr. 2025
  • Here are some of the helpers who rose so fiercely to the grievous occasion.
    — Karen Valby, Vanity Fair, 16 June 2026
  • Many saw friends killed on the battlefield and some suffered grievous wounds.
    — Rich Schapiro, NBC news, 30 Nov. 2025
  • Buruk hit the turf, holding his face as if grievous harm had been inflicted.
    — Nick Miller, New York Times, 29 Sep. 2025
  • This is why the reports that people are being compelled to part with their pets are so grievous.
    — Holly Thomas, CNN, 26 Aug. 2022
  • The harm inflicted was grievous and is still being felt today.
    — Mo Ibrahim, Foreign Affairs, 1 Nov. 2022
  • But the fresh approach has its drawbacks, and there’s one grievous example.
    — Marshall Kilduff, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Dec. 2017
  • The film, which revolves around the drowning of a young child and its grievous aftermath, proved tricky to cast.
    — Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 6 Aug. 2024
  • His announcement is a grievous blow to a bill that was already facing a tough road to passage.
    — Matt Ford, The New Republic, 5 Aug. 2021
  • These grievous actions are an affront to our values and a threat to our interests.
    — NBC News, 7 Sep. 2017
  • The financial wounds caused by the pandemic have been grievous.
    — New York Times, 2 Dec. 2020
  • The death of Soleimani is Iran’s most grievous setback in decades, and Iran seeks vengeance.
    — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, 9 Jan. 2020
  • Many of the bones bore the marks of grievous wounds dealt just before death, which is no surprise on a battlefield, of course.
    — Kiona N. Smith, Ars Technica, 21 May 2018
  • The incident represents a grievous health-care failure in a year full of them.
    — Robert Hackett, Fortune, 23 Sep. 2020
  • More to the point, vintners are mindful that many of their neighbors sustained more grievous losses.
    — Mike Dunne, sacbee, 23 Oct. 2017
  • No ending with Best Picture (more on that grievous misfire in a bit).
    — Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 26 Apr. 2021
  • That grievous attack was the first domino, not that any of the players here can agree on where the true beginning lies.
    — Editorial, Boston Herald, 5 Oct. 2024
  • Men and women can struggle for centuries with the consequences of grievous wrongs.
    — David French, National Review, 11 July 2019
  • Overwhelmed staff there briefly looked at his grievous head injuries and assumed Tawfiq was dead.
    — Raf Sanchez, NBC News, 18 June 2024
  • Ben turns to his mother after another grievous bout and looks relieved.
    — Longreads, 3 Feb. 2026
  • The loss, or what might better be described as the grievous sense of waste, is profoundly communal.
    — Los Angeles Times, 14 Apr. 2021
  • The bread and butter of Peter Pan’s humor is broad and full of grievous injuries.
    — Vulture, 19 Apr. 2023
  • Their paper of record is challenging its readers to come up with insults most grievous in 10 words or less.
    — Mike Newall, Philly.com, 18 Jan. 2018
  • To judge a work of fiction as a finite, single purpose structure would be the one and only grievous error.
    — Literary Hub, 26 June 2026
  • Love confesses to Joe a grievous crime of her own and doesn’t repent when Joe looks at her with shock and horror.
    — Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 30 Dec. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'grievous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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