horrible

English

Etymology

First attested in Middle English^[1] (alternately as horrible and orrible)^[2] in 1303^[3]: from Old French^[1]^[2] horrible, orrible, orible,^[3] from Latin horribilis,^[1]^[2]^[3] from horr(ēre) (“tremble”) + -ibilis (“-ible”).^[2]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɒɹɪbəl/
(US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɔɹɪbəl/, /ˈhɒɹɪbəl/, [-bəɫ]
Audio (US): (file)
(New York City, Philadelphia, Ireland) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹɪbəl/

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 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:
  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 January 21, John Dean, CNN interview‎^[1]:
  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.
A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.

Translations

terrifying thing

Bulgarian: ужасия (bg) (užasija)
Finnish: kauheus (fi)
Malayalam: ഭീകരം (ml) (bhīkaraṁ), ബീഭത്സം (ml) (bībhatsaṁ)
Portuguese: horrível (pt) m or f
Romanian: înfiorare (ro) f, înfricoșare (ro) f, groază (ro) f
Turkish: korkunç (tr), berbat (tr)

Adjective

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

Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
- 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
  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.
  The New Yorker, March 19
- 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.
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 Thesaurus:frightening
See Thesaurus:bad

Related terms

Translations

causing horror, terrible

Afrikaans: aaklig (af)
Arabic: رَهِيب (rahīb), فَظِيع (faẓīʕ)
Asturian: horrible
Belarusian: жахлі́вы (žaxlívy), стра́шны (strášny)
Bulgarian: ужа́сен (bg) (užásen), стра́шен (bg) (strášen)
Catalan: horrible (ca), hòrrid (ca), esgarrifós (ca)
Chechen: къемате (qʼemate)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 可怕的 (kěpà de), 可畏 (kěwèi)
Czech: hrozný (cs), strašný (cs)
Dutch: verschrikkelijk (nl)
Esperanto: horora (eo), terura (eo)
Finnish: kauhea (fi), kauhistuttava (fi), hirvittävä (fi), karmiva (fi), kammottava (fi)
French: horrible (fr), affreux (fr)
Galician: horrible (gl), horríbel (gl)
Georgian: საშინელი (sašineli)
German: schrecklich (de), abscheulich (de), fies (de), makaber (de), entsetzlich (de), grausig (de)
Greek:
Ancient: φρικώδης (phrikṓdēs), αἰνός (ainós), ἄπλατος (áplatos)
Hindi: भयंकर (hi) (bhayaṅkar)
Hungarian: borzalmas (hu), borzasztó (hu), rettenetes (hu)
Icelandic: hræðilegur (is)
Ido: ledega (io)
Irish: gránna, uafásach
Italian: orribile (it), terribile (it)
Japanese: 恐ろしい (ja) (おそろしい, osoroshii)
Kazakh: қорқынышты (qorqynyşty)
Korean: 끔찍하다 (ko) (kkeumjjikhada)
Latin: dīrus, horribilis, horrificus, horrendus
Latvian: šausmīgs
Macedonian: ужасен (užasen), страшен (strašen)
Malayalam: ഭയാനകമായ (bhayānakamāya)
Norman: hôrribl'ye
Old English: eġeslīċ
Polish: straszny (pl), okropny (pl)
Portuguese: horrível (pt)
Romanian: oribil (ro), groaznic (ro), îngrozitor (ro)
Russian: ужа́сный (ru) (užásnyj), стра́шный (ru) (strášnyj)
Sanskrit: भीषण (sa) (bhīṣaṇa)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: у̏жа̄сан, стра́шан

Roman: ȕžāsan (sh), strášan (sh)
Slovak: hrozný, strašný
Slovene: grozen (sl)
Spanish: horrible (es), horrendo (es)
Swedish: fasansfull (sv), hemsk (sv)
Tocharian B: empele
Turkish: korkunç (tr)
Ukrainian: жахли́вий (žaxlývyj), страшни́й (strašnýj)

tremendously bad

Arabic: فَظِيع (faẓīʕ), أَرْبَد (ʔarbad)
Bulgarian: ужасен (bg) (užasen)
Catalan: horrible (ca), terrible (ca), pèssim (ca)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 糟透的 (zāotòu de)
Finnish: surkea (fi)
French: horrible (fr), épouvantable (fr)
Georgian: please add this translation if you can
German: ^{(please verify)} schrecklich (de)
Kazakh: жантүршігерлік (jantürşıgerlık)
Malayalam: ചീത്ത (ml) (cītta)
Romanian: ^{(please verify)} oribil (ro)
Russian: ужа́сный (ru) (užásnyj)
Swedish: ^{(please verify)} förskräcklig (sv)
Turkish: berbat (tr)

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1·1)
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper