Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GRIEV-OUS-NESS, n.

1. Oppressiveness; weight that gives pain or distress; as, the grievousness of a burden.
2. Pain; affliction; calamity; distress; as, the grievousness of sickness, war, or famine.
3. Greatness; enormity; atrociousness; as, the grievousness of sin or offenses.