From Middle English grymly, grimlich, from Old English grimliċ, corresponding to grim + -ly. Compare grimlike.
Meanings
(archaic) Grim-looking, grim-natured.
In reality it was the most terrifying sight I had seen to date: two fried eggs decorated with ketchup, Tabasco and chopped chillis in the semblance of a pair of bloodshot eyes – I would as soon have eaten my own leg. I waved the grimly thing away. 1973, Kyril Bonfiglioli, Don't Point That Thing at Me, Penguin, published 2001, page 94:
To hear her rant, one would have supposed, who had not seen him, that her lank-haired, grimly partner, was the prettiest youth in the county of Dublin, and that all the comely lasses in Chapelizod and the country round were sighing and setting caps at him […] 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
From Middle English grymly, grimliche, from Old English grimlīċe, equivalent to grim + -ly. Cognate with Icelandic grimmliga.
Meanings
In a grim manner.
He looked round and shouted grimly, "As soon as the gate is opened, you go out there - running." 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 63:
I looked out my window / The cloud was grimly forming / Waiting for the rain I saw / The one dark cloud forming 1968, “Grimly Forming”, in Peter Vandergeler (lyrics), Conspicuous Only in Its Absence, performed by The Great Society:
es torvamente (in a grim manner) · it torvamente (in a grim manner) · de grimmig (in a grim manner) · es sombríamente (in a grim manner) · fr sinistrement (in a grim manner) · it cupamente (in a grim manner) · te వికారముగా (in a grim manner) · ru злове́ще (in a grim manner) · pt sombriamente (in a grim manner) · grc ὑπόδρα (in a grim manner) · pt sinistramente (in a grim manner) · pl ponuro (in a grim manner) · fi synkästi (in a grim manner) · ru мра́чно (in a grim manner)