gnarly
adj/ˈnɑːli/UK/ˈnɑɹli/US
Etymology
From gnarl (“knot in wood”) + -y. The slang senses were particularly popularized by US surf culture in the 1970s.
Definitions
Having or characterized by gnarls
Having or characterized by gnarls; gnarled.
- Out of one window I can see the garden, those mysterious deep-shaded arbors, the riotous old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees.
Excellent
Excellent; attractive.
- There ain't nothing gnarlier (apparently) than slapping on some brightly coloured sunblock to ward off the blinding spectre of dangerous, snow-reflected sunlight.
Dangerous
Dangerous; difficult.
- a gnarly problem
- When the swell struck, the North Shore got gnarly, and the wise ones hit the outer islands where the energy was just as juicy but a bit more organized.
- Work that makes you unhappy is what I mean by "a gnarly problem." The trouble is, the market pays for solutions to gnarly problems, not solutions to easy problems. As the Yorkshire lads say, "Where there's muck, there's brass."
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
Unpleasant, awful, ugly.
- We're not talking about a lame chick and a gnarly guy. We're talking about a couple of far-out dudes.
- Funky Kong: 'Those Snowmads are a gnarly bunch! I hear they're enjoyin' your island. Go get 'em, DK!'
The neighborhood
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for gnarly. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA