Definitions for Gnarly
ˈnɑr lignar·ly

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:4.0 / 1 vote

1. gnarled, gnarly, knotted, knotty, knobbedadjective

   used of old persons or old trees; covered with knobs or knots

   "gnarled and knotted hands"; "a knobbed stick"

WiktionaryRate this definition:1.0 / 1 vote

1. gnarlyadjective

   having or characterized by gnarls; gnarled

   On the right of the station were two gnarly cottonwood trees... uE000140784uE001 Mark Goodwin, Last Words

2. gnarlyadjective

   dangerous

   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. uE000140785uE001 Surfer Magazine, March 1977

3. gnarlyadjective

   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. uE000140786uE001 D. Jenkins, Baja Oklahoma

4. gnarlyadjective

   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. uE000140787uE001 Glasgow Sunday Herald, 16 January 2000

5. gnarlyadjective

   Of music or a sound, harsh

   "[She] displays the same love of gnarly fuzztones and shout-it-out-loud choruses that began back in her daze [sic] with local all-girl rockers the Runaways. uE000140788uE001 Los Angeles Times, 12 October 1986

ChatGPTRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. gnarly

   Gnarly is a slang term originating from surf culture, but now used more broadly, that can have both positive and negative connotations depending on the context. In a positive context, it is often used to describe something that's extremely good, excellent, cool, or impressive. In a negative context, it can refer to something that's tough, challenging, extreme, complicated, or even unpleasant. When describing a physical object, like a tree trunk for example, gnarly refers to something that's rough, twisted, or distorted.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Gnarlyadjective

   full of knots; knotty; twisted; crossgrained

The New Hacker's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. gnarly

   Both obscure and hairy (sense 1). “Yow! — the tuned assembler implementation of BitBlt is really gnarly!” From a similar but less specific usage in surfer slang.

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

1. [["1721","1"],["1760","2"],["1799","1"],["1803","3"],["1819","1"],["1825","1"],["1828","1"],["1829","4"],["1831","2"],["1832","3"],["1834","5"],["1835","2"],["1836","3"],["1838","12"],["1839","5"],["1844","3"],["1845","2"],["1846","1"],["1848","2"],["1850","4"],["1851","2"],["1852","1"],["1853","3"],["1854","8"],["1855","6"],["1856","2"],["1857","8"],["1858","4"],["1859","9"],["1860","15"],["1862","9"],["1863","12"],["1864","15"],["1865","12"],["1866","8"],["1867","10"],["1868","17"],["1869","6"],["1870","29"],["1871","16"],["1872","16"],["1873","22"],["1874","14"],["1875","9"],["1876","12"],["1877","16"],["1878","5"],["1879","5"],["1880","18"],["1881","11"],["1882","3"],["1883","24"],["1884","13"],["1885","8"],["1886","29"],["1887","31"],["1888","23"],["1889","34"],["1890","34"],["1891","27"],["1892","34"],["1893","29"],["1894","31"],["1895","25"],["1896","36"],["1897","41"],["1898","61"],["1899","37"],["1900","46"],["1901","24"],["1902","62"],["1903","56"],["1904","50"],["1905","63"],["1906","78"],["1907","58"],["1908","34"],["1909","63"],["1910","49"],["1911","84"],["1912","98"],["1913","45"],["1914","70"],["1915","71"],["1916","59"],["1917","85"],["1918","19"],["1919","72"],["1920","28"],["1921","46"],["1922","73"],["1923","23"],["1924","47"],["1925","51"],["1926","29"],["1927","64"],["1928","33"],["1929","38"],["1930","50"],["1931","12"],["1932","9"],["1933","35"],["1934","71"],["1935","11"],["1936","23"],["1937","27"],["1938","233"],["1939","32"],["1940","35"],["1941","23"],["1942","23"],["1943","15"],["1944","9"],["1945","28"],["1946","23"],["1947","18"],["1948","33"],["1949","61"],["1950","52"],["1951","42"],["1952","16"],["1953","8"],["1954","35"],["1955","13"],["1956","21"],["1957","24"],["1958","25"],["1959","40"],["1960","14"],["1961","31"],["1962","33"],["1963","62"],["1964","40"],["1965","25"],["1966","35"],["1967","47"],["1968","51"],["1969","74"],["1970","42"],["1971","26"],["1972","35"],["1973","43"],["1974","26"],["1975","28"],["1976","35"],["1977","27"],["1978","19"],["1979","40"],["1980","54"],["1981","39"],["1982","47"],["1983","38"],["1984","78"],["1985","80"],["1986","77"],["1987","96"],["1988","122"],["1989","185"],["1990","221"],["1991","248"],["1992","256"],["1993","321"],["1994","449"],["1995","443"],["1996","490"],["1997","513"],["1998","605"],["1999","666"],["2000","837"],["2001","906"],["2002","1184"],["2003","1351"],["2004","1425"],["2005","1565"],["2006","1616"],["2007","1492"],["2008","1756"]]

How to pronounce Gnarly?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say Gnarly in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of Gnarly in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of Gnarly in Pythagorean Numerology is: 5

Examples of Gnarly in a Sentence

1. Ryan Navales:

   After destroying my family, in and out of jail, in and out of treatment, I was living on the streets and doing what people have to do on the streets to support a really gnarly heroin habit, in August of 2011, I was brought to the Midnight Mission homeless.

2. Sterling Anderson:

   You've taken at least one gnarly part of the equation out, you no longer have a human exposed at quite the rate. On the logistics side, this is a tremendous opportunity.

3. Angelo Nicolo of Trenton:

   I saw two police officers escort a guy that got shot in the leg. They bandaged him up and whisked him away before the ambulance came here. It was pretty gnarly.

4. Bam Margera:

   I did not know that I had gnarly Covid and my body was shutting down. I went into four seizures, each one lasting 10 to 20 minutes. On the fourth one I bit my tongue so hard it was nearly falling off. It got so swollen and puffy it wouldn’t fit in my mouth. I was drinking the infected blood, which gave me pneumonia, as well. i went to the hospital and had my fifth seizure and then couldn’t breathe without a tube down my throat. I woke up five days later thinking I was there for just a couple hours. I spent eight days in there.

5. Bill Whitehouse:

   The description in his email was it was a bit of a gnarly dive, which means there were complications and problems, quite a strong flow, current, so they're having to swim against the current and pull themselves along the walls. The visibility in the water wouldn't have been very good.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

References

1. ^ Princeton's WordNet
   http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=Gnarly
2. ^ Wiktionary
   https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Gnarly
3. ^ ChatGPT
   https://chat.openai.com
4. ^ Webster Dictionary
   https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Gnarly
5. ^ The New Hacker's Dictionary
   https://www.gutenberg.org/files/3008/3008-h/3008-h.htm#Gnarly
6. ^ Usage in printed sources
   https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=Gnarly