Definition of "grue" in English

verb

1. (intransitive, archaic except Northern England, Scotland) To be frightened; also, to shudder with fear; to quake, to tremble.

noun

1. (Scotland) A shiver, a shudder.

   • A Grue of Ice

noun

1. Any byproduct of a gruesome event, such as gore, viscera, entrails, blood and guts.

   • The butcher was covered in the accumulated grue of a hard day's work
   • There was grue everywhere after the accident
   • 1990, John DeChancie, Castle War! Incarnadine had to be quick with the sword. Huge wings flapped in time with explosions of grue, and the stink of burnt flesh and feathers filled the air.
   • Carrie is Cinderella in the body language of menstrual blood and raging hormones. King’s adolescent joy in grimaces and groans, the Mad magazine humor, and the staple of “grue” hardly need mentioning.
   • 2002, Carole Nelson Douglas, Chapel Noir http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=ZZu4sl0P1EAC&pg=PA336&lpg=PA336&sig=dPR0ntE54xw-h3m6fByM0fgJiuc “… She is quite agreeable to gruesome ghost stories, but appalled by the lust for life.” / “I admit that I am surprised by how well she handles sheer grue, better than I.”
   • 2004, Talbot Mundy, Guns of the Gods http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=PUCcyz2L1iwC&pg=PA244&lpg=PA244&sig=REDDP_txW9FrUWEogxny6lZ4wUo “This is the grue,” said Dick, holding his lantern high. / Its light fell on a circle of skeletons, all perfect, each with its head toward a brass bowl in the center.

noun

1. A fictional man-eating predator that dwells in the dark.

adjective

1. (philosophy) Of an object, green when first observed before a specified time or blue when first observed after that time.

2. (linguistics) Of a single color inclusive of both green and blue as different shades, used in translations from languages such as Old Welsh and Old Chinese that lacked a distinction between green and blue.

noun

1. (slang) Nutraloaf, a bland mixture of foods served in prisons.