| Definitions | | horrible |
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noun
- 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, http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0001/21/ip.00.html 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 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.
- A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.
adjective
- Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
- tremendous, Tremendously wrong or errant.
Etymology: First attested in <ref name="AHD-etym">The <b>American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language<b>, Fourth Edition</ref> (alternately as (term, horrible, lang=enm) and (term, orrible, lang=enm))<ref name="D.C-etym">Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1Â1)</ref> in 1303<ref name="EOD-etym">Online Etymology Dictionary,  2001 Douglas Harper</ref>: from <ref name="AHD-etym"/><ref name="D.C-etym"/> (term, horrible, lang=fro)<ref name="EOD-etym"/>, from (term, horribilis, lang=la)<ref name="AHD-etym"/><ref name="D.C-etym"/><ref name="EOD-etym"/>, from (term, horrere, horr(Äre), bristle with fear<ref name="D.C-etym"/><ref name="EOD-etym"/>; shudder<ref name="EOD-etym"/>; stand on end<ref name="D.C-etym"/>; tremble<ref name="AHD-etym"/>, lang=la) + (term, -ibilis, , -ible, lang=la)<ref name="D.C-etym"/>.
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Full Definition of horrible
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