▪ I. grizzly, a. and n.1
(ˈgrɪzlɪ)
Forms: 6 ? gristelly, 7–9 grizly, 7 greisly, grisly, 8 griesly, 9 gresley, gristly, grizzlie, 8– grizzly.
[f. grizzle a. + -y.]
A. adj. a. Grey; greyish; grey-haired; grizzled.
| 1594 Carew Tasso (1881) 74 A beard bigge, bushy, knotted gristelly. 1602 Shakes. Ham. i. ii. 24 His Beard was grisly? 1626 Bacon Sylva §851 Old Squirrels, that turne Grisly. 1694 J. Wood in Collect. Voy. (1729) IV. ii. 109 We..came to an Anchor in eleven Fathom Water greisly Sand. 1748 Richardson Clarissa (1811) VIII. xli. 158 Her matted griesly hair. 1770 G. White Selborne xxviii. 79 The colour was a grizzly black. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) III. 184 The colour of the body is grizly, and beset with bristles. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge i, He had a grizzly jagged beard of some three weeks' date. 1843 Landor Imag. Conv. Wks. 1846 II. 213 A middle-aged gentleman, tall, round-shouldered, and..somewhat grizzly. 1864 Lowell Fireside Trav. 274 Rojate, the next town,..grim and grizzly,..looked drearier. 1868 C. M. Yonge Cameos I. i. 10 He was an old grizzly warrior. |
b. grizzly bear: a large and ferocious bear, Ursus horribilis, peculiar to the mountainous districts of western North America; also, the name of an American dance in which the hug and walk of a bear are imitated.
| 1807 P. Gass Jrnl. 221 The bears from which they get these skins are a harmless kind, and not so bold and ferocious as the grizly and brown bear. 1859 Marcy Prairie Trav. vii. 247 The grizzly bear is assuredly the monarch of the American forests. 1912 Lit. Digest 30 Mar. 656/2 Steps that would have ruled him off any cotillion floor in New York in these days of the ban on the grizzly-bear and kindred dances. 1928 F. Scott Fitzgerald in Sat. Even. Post 29 Sept. 118 They moved around the room, locked in the convulsive grip of the grizzly bear. 1959 M. T. Williams Art of Jazz (1960) xii. 109 The halls where they had so recently danced the Grizzly Bear and the Buzzard Lope to the music of the jazz bands. |
c. grizzly king, grizzly queen: the names of artificial flies for angling.
| 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 227/1 Bass flies of proved merit include the bob white, grizzly queen, grizzly king. |
Hence ˈgrizzliness. rare—1.
| 1654 Gayton Pleas. Notes iii. xi. 152 The Don..like an Ape..shews himselfe to be descended from Hercules by the melan-pygitie (that is, the grizlinesse) of his posteriours. |
B. n. The grizzly bear.
| 1808 Pike Sources Mississ. (1810) iii. App. 7 North Mexico produces elk, deer, buffalo, cabrie, the gresley, black bear, and wild horses. 1859 J. G. Wood Nat. Hist. I. 400 The Grizzly, or ‘Ephraim’ as the creature is familiarly termed by the hunters. 1879 I. L. Bird Lady's Life Rocky Mts. 18 A man..asked me if I were the English tourist who had ‘happened on’ a ‘grizzlie’ yesterday. |
▪ II. grizzly, n.2 Mining. U.S.
(ˈgrɪzlɪ)
A grating of parallel iron bars with interstices between to allow the finer material to fall into the sluices below while the larger stones are screened off.
| 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 56 The débris..is again caught up, the bowlders precipitated over a ‘grizzly’ into the cañon below [etc.]. 1879 Encycl. Brit. X. 746/1. 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Grizzly, Pac[ific Coast], a grating to catch and throw out large stones from sluices. |
▪ III. grizzly
variant of grisly a.
▪ IV. grizzly, a.2 colloq.
(ˈgrɪzlɪ)
[f. grizzle v.2 + -y1.]
Inclined to grizzle or complain whiningly; fretful, fractious, peevish.
| 1900 Eng. Dial. Dict. II. 735/1 Grizzly,..fretful, peevish. 1959 I. & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolch. x. 178 A short-tempered person is spoken of as being: catty.., grizzly, niggled or niggly. 1988 Mother & Baby Apr. 21/3 He was very grizzly and unsettled—until I bought a baby sling and started to carry him round with me. |