Synonyms for gnarly
ˈnɑr lignar·ly

WiktionaryRate these synonyms:3.5 / 10 votes

1. gnarlyadjective

   Synonyms:
   dreadful, cool, discordant, knobbly, knobby, gnarled, awful, nasty

2. gnarlyadjective

   having or characterized by gnarls; gnarled

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

   Synonyms:
   dreadful, awful, discordant, knobby, knobbly, gnarled, nasty, cool

3. 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. Surfer Magazine, March 1977

   Synonyms:
   awful, knobby, discordant, knobbly, gnarled, cool, nasty, dreadful

4. 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. D. Jenkins, Baja Oklahoma

   Synonyms:
   knobby, awful, nasty, cool, dreadful, discordant, knobbly, gnarled

5. 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. Glasgow Sunday Herald, 16 January 2000

   Synonyms:
   knobby, nasty, discordant, awful, gnarled, knobbly, dreadful, cool

6. 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. Los Angeles Times, 12 October 1986

   Synonyms:
   gnarled, dreadful, knobby, cool, knobbly, discordant, nasty, awful

Princeton's WordNetRate these synonyms:3.0 / 2 votes

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"

   Synonyms:
   tangled, baffling, problematic, convoluted, tortuous, gnarled, tough, snarly, problematical, involved, snarled, knotted, elusive, knotty, knobbed

   Antonyms:
   straight

Dictionary of English SynonymesRate these synonyms:1.0 / 2 votes

1. gnarlyadjective

   Synonyms:
   GNARLED

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How to use gnarly in a sentence?

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.