English

Adjective

abhorrent ‎(comparative more abhorrent, superlative most abhorrent)

1. (archaic) Inconsistent with; far removed from; strongly opposed to[Late 16^th century.]^[1]

   abhorrent thoughts

   • 1803, Edmund Burke, (Please provide the title of the work):

     The persons most abhorrent from blood, and treason, and arbitrary confiscation, might remain silent spectators of this civil war between the vices.

2. Contrary to; discordant. [Mid 17^th century.]^[1]
   • 1827, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline And Fall of the Roman Empire:

     This legal, and, as it should seem, injudicious profanation, so abhorrent to out stricter principles, was received with a very faint murmur, ...

   • 1990, James Hankins, Plato in the Italian Renaissance:

     In establishing his ideal state he expressed some opinions utterly abhorrent to our customs and ways of living. He believed, for instance, that all wives should be held in common ... with the result that no one could tell his own children from those of a perfect stranger.

3. Abhorring; detesting; having or showing abhorrence; loathing. [Mid 18^th century.]^[1]
4. Detestable or repugnant. [Early 19^th century.]^[1]
   • 1833, Isaac Taylor, Fanaticism:

     If Pride, abhorrent as it is, and if Ambition, ...

   • 1936, Paul E. More, On Being Human:

     That, I protest, is a doctrine psychologically impossible and ethically abhorrent.

   • 1822, Richard Clover, Leonidas:

     The arts of pleasure in despotic courts I spurn, abhorrent; in a spotless heart I look for pleasure.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which abhorrent is often applied: behavior, act, crime, practice, thing.
• (opposed): abhorrent is typically folled by from.
• (contrary): abhorrent is followed by to.

Related terms

Translations

References

1. 1 2 3 4 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 4

French

Verb

abhorrent

1. third-person plural present indicative of abhorrer
2. third-person plural present subjunctive of abhorrer

Latin

Verb

abhorrent

1. third-person plural present active indicative of abhorreō