Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Horrible
Hor′ri-ble
,Adj.
[OE.
horrible
, orrible
, OF. horrible
, orrible
, F. horrible
, fr. L. horribilis
, fr. horrere
. See Horror
.] Exciting, or tending to excite, horror or fear; dreadful; terrible; shocking; hideous;
as, a
horrible
sight; a horrible
story; a horrible
murder.
Syn. – Dreadful; frightful; fearful; terrible; awful; terrific; shocking; hideous; horrid.
Webster 1828 Edition
Horrible
HOR'RIBLE
,Adj.
A dungeon horrible on all sides round.
Definition 2024
horrible
horrible
English
Noun
horrible (plural horribles)
- A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
- Here's a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing. Such a waggish leering as lurks in all your horribles!
- 1982, United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, The Genocide Convention: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate
- A lot of the possible horribles conjured up by the people objecting to this convention ignore the plain language of this treaty.
- 1991, Alastair Scott, Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey
- The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles.
- 2000, John Dean, CNN interview, January 21, 2000:
- I'm trying to convince him that the criminal behavior that's going on at the White House has to end. And I give him one horrible after the next. I just keep raising them. He sort of swats them away.
- 2001, Neil K. Komesar, Law's Limits: The Rule of Law and the Supply and Demand of Rights
- Many scholars have demonstrated these horribles and contemplated significant limitations on class actions.
- 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
- A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.
Translations
terrifying thing
Adjective
horrible (comparative horribler or more horrible, superlative horriblest or most horrible)
- Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
- 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate, Prologue:
- Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible, deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability: […] it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
- 1949, J. D. Salinger, The Laughing Man:
- Strangers fainted dead away at the sight of the Laughing Man's horrible face. Acquaintances shunned him.
- 1953, Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451:
- Some of us have had plastic surgery on our faces and fingerprints. Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end.
- 1933, James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times:
- Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.
- 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate, Prologue:
- Tremendously bad.
- 2010, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2010, page 599:
- Having now absorbed all or parts of 750 responses to my complaints about Transformers, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that most of those writing agree with me that it is a horrible movie.
- 2010, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2010, page 599:
Synonyms
- See Wikisaurus:frightening
- See Wikisaurus:bad
Related terms
Translations
causing horror, terrible
|
|
tremendously bad
References
- 1 2 3 4 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1·1)
- 1 2 3 4 5 Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
Asturian
Etymology
From Latin horribilis.
Adjective
horrible (epicene, plural horribles)
Related terms
Catalan
Etymology
From Latin horribilis.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /uˈribːɫə/
Adjective
horrible m, f (masculine and feminine plural horribles)
Derived terms
Related terms
Galician
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Latin horribilis.
Adjective
horrible m, f (plural horribles)
Derived terms
Related terms
Spanish
Etymology
From Latin horribilis.
Adjective
horrible m, f (plural horribles)