What's the difference between fierce and grim?

Fierce


Definition:

  • (superl.) Furious; violent; unrestrained; impetuous; as, a fierce wind.
  • (superl.) Vehement in anger or cruelty; ready or eager to kill or injure; of a nature to inspire terror; ferocious.
  • (superl.) Excessively earnest, eager, or ardent.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Migrant voters are almost as numerous as current Ukip supporters but they are widely overlooked and risk being increasingly disaffected by mainstream politics and the fierce rhetoric around immigration caused partly by the rise of Ukip,” said Robert Ford from Manchester University, the report’s co-author.
  • (2) Yves was the vulnerable, suffering artist and Pierre the fiercely controlling protector: a man who, in Lespert's film, is painfully aware of his public image – "the pimp who's found his all-star hooker".
  • (3) Some business groups have been lobbying fiercely against the reform, though others support it.
  • (4) As Greece pleads with its eurozone creditors for more time in meeting its fiscal adjustment targets, Dombrovskis is a fierce champion of surgical austerity applied quickly and ruthlessly.
  • (5) Despite its dominance, the PAP continues to fiercely restrict freedom of assembly and speech.
  • (6) Recruitment has not returned to pre-credit crunch levels, and there is fierce competition for new jobs.
  • (7) And in Colorado the fiercely anti-immigration conservative and former presidential candidate Ted Tancredo was comfortably overcome by a more moderate former congressman, Bob Beauprez, in the primary to choose the Republican candidate for the state's governor.
  • (8) Andrea Dworkin, who has died aged 58, was a feminist who came to represent the fierce debate on pornography and sexual violence.
  • (9) In the past fortnight protesters have found themselves caught in the middle of fierce gun battles between regime forces and defected soldiers who have been guarding the main protest camp since March.
  • (10) The last of these come into force in 2014, and after fierce resistance from the larger operators, Kroes is not proposing any more price reductions.
  • (11) Thus in your own words you have said why it was utterly inappropriate for you to use the platform of a Pac hearing in this way.” He suggested that many professionals were “in despair at the lack of understanding and cheap haranguing which characterise your manner” after a series of hearings at which Hodge has led fierce interrogations of senior business figures and others.
  • (12) Allegations that British soldiers murdered insurgents and mutilated their bodies after a fierce firefight in Iraq were roundly rejected by an official inquiry, which also found that a number of prisoners were abused and that troops breached the Geneva convention.
  • (13) So there will no doubt be another fierce battle next year over this issue.
  • (14) There's something very earnest about the build up to this MLS Cup final, as if the battle on the field between Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake starts with a competition to see which team can "respect" the other one more fiercely.
  • (15) Cameron is caught between fierce opposition to reform on his own benches, Labour criticism of the bill, and the determination of his deputy Nick Clegg to press ahead with a reform that has been delayed for 100 years.
  • (16) Liverpool were restricted to shots from the edge of the area throughout the opening half, mainly from Alberto who went close with one curling effort and had fierce drive parried by the goalkeeper Mark Oxley.
  • (17) However, City sources said that SABMiller is likely to launch a fierce defence against a deal and could instead look to combine with Diageo , the British owner of Guinness and Johnnie Walker whisky.
  • (18) Tesco’s accounting scandal has led to concerns about the way the sector handles payments from suppliers for promoting products or hitting sales targets, and UK grocers are operating under fierce competition from discounters such as the German company Aldi which has reported a 65% rise in profits in the UK.
  • (19) Liverpool did not begin like a side who believed a top-four finish was beyond them and continued to apply fierce pressure.
  • (20) Sitting in the Khartoum restaurant as the fierce late-afternoon sun intrudes through the windows, Lubna dismisses the notion that western praise might be a drawback in a country like Sudan.

Grim


Definition:

  • (Compar.) Of forbidding or fear-inspiring aspect; fierce; stern; surly; cruel; frightful; horrible.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This is the grim Fury on a rainy winter morning in Cannes.
  • (2) The level of prescribing of opioid painkillers – Percocet in Geni’s case – has soared, and with it the incidence of addiction, and addiction’s grim best friend: fatal overdoses.
  • (3) Patients with anti-NC1 antibodies were characterised by linear immune deposits along the glomerular basement membrane and the clinical outcome was invariably grim.
  • (4) The Mail branded the deal "a grim day for all who value freedom" and, like the Times, accused David Cameron of crossing the Rubicon and threatening press freedom for the first time since newspapers were licensed in the 17th century.
  • (5) ARD TV showing grim-faced FDP cadres: could this be the first time they fall out of national parliament in 60 years?
  • (6) It has said a better productivity performance and rising North Sea oil revenues will make the budgetary position less grim.
  • (7) Shields accepted that the Irish appeared more inclined to send up their grim fiscal situation than go out and riot.
  • (8) Inside the Islamic State ‘capital’: no end in sight to its grim rule Read more The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia and an alliance of rebels known as the “Euphrates Volcano” – backed US-led coalition air strikes – have seized swaths of territory from Isis, including the strategic border town of Tal Abyad .
  • (9) Yet, if that flurry of form pepped optimism, the injuries and displays in recent friendlies have provided a grim reality check.
  • (10) The dark, luxury air in the silent bedrooms of empty riverside apartments, their identical curving blocks clustered in threes and fours, grim and silent as gill slits, will be theirs.
  • (11) Chinese media and bloggers published images of three young children in blue school uniforms lying dead on the pavement – a grim echo of the high casualty rate at poorly constructed schools in Sichuan in 2008, when a bigger quake killed 87,000 people.
  • (12) The BCC survey represents a turnround from the end of last year, when it was predicting stagflation – a grim combination of zero growth and inflation.
  • (13) The human rights organisation, which has produced a series of in-depth reports detailing the grim working conditions of many of the 1.5 million migrant labourers engaged in a huge construction boom, said “little has changed in law, policy and practice” since the government promised limited reforms 12 months ago.
  • (14) Carcinoma of unknown histogenesis or primary site is an increasingly recognized syndrome regarded by most physicians as having a grim prognosis.
  • (15) "There are times when a swingeing sentence can act as a deterrent", as the judge at the trial was grimly to pronounce.
  • (16) The footage beamed back from the liberated districts of Ramadi is grim: a ghost town littered with debris and smashed concrete, destroyed storefronts, plumes of smoke, the sound of gunfire piercing the air as Iraqi soldiers speak on camera.
  • (17) It was my shortcomings as coach that caused this result,” said a grim-faced South Korea manager, Hong Myung-bo, who spent most of the post-match press-conference scratching his nose in apparent distress and deflecting comments about whether he would stay on as manager until next year’s Asian Cup.
  • (18) After grim news on the recession, at least one thing should become clearer: going back to where we were is no longer an option.
  • (19) While deplorable and to a degree self-defeating, this insouciant defiance also makes a grim kind of sense, both historically and reinforced by recent events.
  • (20) The entity carries a grim visual prognosis, as all ten eyes initially had no perception of light; improvement to light perception occurred in one instance.