gory

From gore +‎ -y. Compare Middle English gorry (“muddy”), and güre, gire, girre (“gory, clotted”), from Old English gyr, gyru (“filthy, muddy”), from gor (“dirt, dung”); Old Frisian gere, iere (“muddy water”). More at gore.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔː.ɹi/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɔɹ.i/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔːɹi

gory (comparative gorier, superlative goriest)

1. Covered with blood; very bloody.

   a gory movie

2. (informal) Scandalous, and often unpleasant. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)

   Her autobiography gives all the gory details of her many divorces.

   • 1928, The Police Journal, volume 16, page 15:

     "What do you know of this Sara Stilton affair, Earl?" / "Not so much—but enough to denounce as high crime and treason her being permitted, let the paid, for eruditing on her muderous experiences and appearing upon the screen in all the gory glamour of shooting her ancient but wealthy husband. […] "

   • 2006, Charlotte Wilson, The Greatest Man I Never Met, page 70:

     In no time they fired away all the gory intimate details, down to his rose tattoo.

   • 2008 July 14, Douglas McDaniel, Ginsberg Rolls Over, Lulu.com, →ISBN:

     […] since the gory truth of the matter is I need scatterbrain automobiles of desire to burn up the road in order to get out of my own way

   • 2009, Bart Yates, The Distance Between Us, page 143:

     "Don't be so modest, Caitlin. Let's hear all the gory details. For instance, was there leather involved? Or maybe some handcuffs?" / Jeremy giggled.

   • 2023 March 21, Lyvonne Briggs, Sensual Faith: The Art of Coming Home to Your Body, Convergent Books, →ISBN:

     The gory truth is that white women suffragettes (feminists) were not marching for Black women's right to vote in the early twentieth century. The unsavory reality is that Sistas faced sexism at the hands of our Brothas [too].

   • 2025, Shiv Shivakumar, The CEO Mindset: Developing Leadership Habits and Mental Models for Success:

     His only aim was to catch the CEO at lunch and give him all the gory news to make life difficult for people he didn't like.

3. (figuratively) Excessively detailed, often boringly so.
   • 2007 05, Angela Thompson, Where the Heck Is That Place Called Hope?, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 129:

     I ask the obligatory questions about how he thought she was doing and if he changed the medicine. I bite my tongue and get all the gory information. She tortures me for a while, knowing what I really want to know. Then I ask the two most important questions about the medication change. In no particular order, “Are we going to get to go to the all you can eat […]

   • 2011 January 11, Ann C. Logue, MBA, Emerging Markets For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN:

     All the gory information is in the footnotes to the financial statements. Under U.S. GAAP, companies are required to disclose information about their accounting choices and their expenses in the footnotes. The notes […]

   • 2011 August 8, Ralph Kimball, Margy Ross, The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 133:

     […] level detail, you may be thinking that all you need is a big, fast DBMS to handle the gory transaction minutiae, and your job is over. Unfortunately, even with […]

   • 2013 March 22, Ethel Crowley, Your Place or Mine?: Community and Belonging in Twenty-First Century Ireland, Orpen Press, →ISBN:

     When they go for a drink at the local pub, they may be quite bored with the gory minutiae of the local gossip.

• Győr, gyro, gyro-, orgy

gory

1. superseded spelling of góry