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- DictionaryHor·ri·ble/ˈhôrəb(ə)l/
adjective
- 1. causing or likely to cause horror; shocking: "a horrible massacre"
The meaning of HORRIBLE is marked by or arousing painful and intense fear, dread, dismay, or aversion : marked by or arousing horror. How to use horrible in a sentence.
very shocking and frightening: a horrible crime. Synonyms. dreadful (FRIGHTENING) ghastly. horrendous. horrific. More examples. SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases. (Definition of horrible from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)
Horrible means "causing horror," and goes back to the Latin word for “tremble” or “shudder.”. A horrible thing makes you shake with fear, like a story about an atrocious crime. We also use horrible hyperbolically (which means in an over-the-top way) to criticize things.
Horrible is popularly used to mean extremely bad—awful, dreadful, or horrendous. When it’s used to describe a person, it often means extremely disagreeable or cruel. Much less commonly, it can mean literally causing horror—horrifying or horrific.
When trouble comes they behave selfishly and horribly. You can call something horrible when it causes you to feel great shock, fear, and disgust. Still the horrible shrieking came out of his mouth. A two-year-old boy was horribly murdered. Horrible is used to emphasize how bad something is.
(informal) very bad or unpleasant; used to describe something that you do not like. What horrible weather! The coffee tasted absolutely horrible. a horrible mess/smell/noise. I've got a horrible feeling she lied to us. I feel horrible about what happened. He looks horrible with that new haircut.
horrible (somewhat informal) very unpleasant; used to describe something that you do not like: The coffee tasted horrible. dreadful ( somewhat informal ) very bad or unpleasant; used to describe something that you do not like or that you disapprove of: My schedule is dreadful this week.
extremely, or in a very bad or unpleasant way: His plan went horribly wrong. (Definition of horrible from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)
Horrible Definition. Causing a feeling of horror; terrible; dreadful; frightful. Tremendously wrong or errant. A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
Define horrible. horrible synonyms, horrible pronunciation, horrible translation, English dictionary definition of horrible. adj. 1. Arousing or tending to arouse horror; dreadful: "War is beyond all words horrible" . 2. Very unpleasant; disagreeable. hor′ri·ble·ness n.