English

Adjective

odious ‎(comparative more odious, superlative most odious)

1. Arousing or meriting strong dislike, aversion, or intense displeasure.

   Scrubbing the toilet is an odious task.

   • 1903, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes^Wikisource:

     "He was a dreadful person, a bully to everyone else, but to me something infinitely worse. He made odious love to me, boasted of his wealth, said that if I married him I would have the finest diamonds in London, and finally, when I would have nothing to do with him, he seized me in his arms one day after dinner -- he was hideously strong -- and he swore that he would not let me go until I had kissed him."

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 6, in Frankenstein:

     He looks upon study as an odious fetter; his time is spent in the open air, climbing the hills or rowing on the lake.

Usage notes

• Nouns to which "odious" is often applied: debt, man, character, crime, task, comparison, woman, person, vice, word, act.

Synonyms

• detestable, hated, reviled, unsavory, contemptible, despicable

Translations

Anagrams

• iodous