Definition of "grue"

“It is seenteen hundred linen,” said the pedlar, giving a tweak to one of the shirts, in that knowing manner with which matrons and judges ascertain the texture of the loom ; “it’s seenteen hundred linen, and as strong as an it were dowlas. Nevertheless, mother, your bidding is to be done ; and I would have done Mr. Mordaunt’s bidding too,” he added, relaxing from his note of defiance, into the deferential whining tone with which he cajoled his customers, “if he hadna made use of profane oaths which made my very flesh grue, and caused me, in some sort, to forget myself.”

1822, Sir Walter Scott, The Pirate, volume I, Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, pages 111–112

Upon all others the sight of Alison, were it but for a moment, cast a cold grue, not to be remembered without terror.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

A Grue of Ice

1964, Geoffrey Jenkins, (title)

A cold grue went through me—I was unable to touch such a hand.

1992, Alasdair Gray, Poor Things, Bloomsbury, published 2002, page 25

'I've told you - it wasn't much. He tried to kiss me.' She smiled slightly. 'Just after he had shown me the family skeletons.' / 'What a lovely bit of grue!'

1958, Samuel Youd, writing as John Christopher, The Caves of Night

Carrie is Cinderella in the body language of menstrual blood and raging hormones. King’s adolescent joy in grimaces and groans, the Mad magazine humor, and the staple of “grue” hardly need mentioning.

1996, Linda Badley, Writing Horror and the Body

“[...] She is quite agreeable to gruesome ghost stories, but appalled by the lust for life.” / “I admit that I am surprised by how well she handles sheer grue, better than I.”

2002, Carole Nelson Douglas, Chapel Noir

“This is the grue,” said Dick, holding his lantern high. / Its light fell on a circle of skeletons, all perfect, each with its head toward a brass bowl in the center.

2004, Talbot Mundy, Guns of the Gods

I managed to get into the house through the front once, but I was plunged into darkness and eaten by a monster called a grue.

1981, Byte, volume 6

To find a grue, turn off the light at night, or go for a walk in a dark place (but carry a flashlight with you).

2009, Jas, “Hazadous [sic] Australian animals the GRUE.... your guide”, in rec.travel.australia+nz (Usenet)

Incidentally, the best official text description I know of is in Sorcerer, when you actually become a grue and visit a grue colony. IIRC, even that description is vague, but does cannonize[sic] that they are large four-legged reptiles.

2004, M.D. Dollahite, “How would you imagine a grue?”, in rec.games.int-fiction (Usenet)

The grue property is defined as: x is grue if and only if x is green and is observed before the year 2000, or x is blue and is not observed before the year 2000.

1965, Nelson Goodman, Fact, Fiction and Forecast

The unexamined emeralds cannot be both green and grue, since if they are grue and unexamined they are blue.

2007, Michael Clark, Paradoxes from A to Z