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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.
[L. horribilis. See Horror.] Exciting or tending to excite horror; dreadful; terrible; shocking; hideous; as a horrible figure or sight; a horrible story.
A dungeon horrible on all sides round.

Definition 2024


horrible

horrible

English

Noun

horrible (plural horribles)

  1. 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.
  2. A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.

Translations

Adjective

horrible (comparative horribler or more horrible, superlative horriblest or most horrible)

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

Synonyms

  • See Wikisaurus:frightening
  • See Wikisaurus:bad

Related terms

Translations

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1·1)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin horribilis.

Adjective

horrible (epicene, plural horribles)

  1. horrible

Related terms


Catalan

Etymology

From Latin horribilis.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /uˈribːɫə/

Adjective

horrible m, f (masculine and feminine plural horribles)

  1. horrible

Derived terms

Related terms


French

Pronunciation

Adjective

horrible m, f (plural horribles)

  1. horrible; causing horror.

Galician

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Latin horribilis.

Adjective

horrible m, f (plural horribles)

  1. horrible

Derived terms

Related terms


Middle English

Adjective

horrible

  1. horrible

Spanish

Etymology

From Latin horribilis.

Adjective

horrible m, f (plural horribles)

  1. horrible

Derived terms

Related terms