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horror

 - 5 dictionary results

hor⋅ror

  [hawr-er, hor-]
Use horror in a Sentence
–noun
1. an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear: to shrink back from a mutilated corpse in horror.
2. anything that causes such a feeling: killing, looting, and other horrors of war.
3. such a feeling as a quality or condition: to have known the horror of slow starvation.
4. a strong aversion; abhorrence: to have a horror of emotional outbursts.
5. Informal. something considered bad or tasteless: That wallpaper is a horror. The party was a horror.
6. horrors, Informal.
a. delirium tremens.
b. extreme depression.
–adjective
7. inspiring or creating horror, loathing, aversion, etc.: The hostages told horror stories of their year in captivity.
8. centered upon or depicting terrifying or macabre events: a horror movie.
–interjection
9. horrors, (used as a mild expression of dismay, surprise, disappointment, etc.)
Origin:
1520–30; < L horror, equiv. to horr- (s. of horrēre to bristle with fear; see horrendous ) + -or -or 1 ; r. ME orrour < AF < L horrōr-, s. of horror

Synonyms:
1. dread, dismay, consternation. See terror. 4. loathing, antipathy, detestation, hatred, abomination.

Antonyms:
1. serenity. 4. attraction.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To horror
hor·ror   (hôr'ər, hŏr'-)   
n.  

  1. An intense, painful feeling of repugnance and fear. See Synonyms at fear.

  2. Intense dislike; abhorrence.

  3. A cause of horror.

  4. Informal Something unpleasant, ugly, or disagreeable: That hat is a horror.

  5. horrors Informal Intense nervous depression or anxiety. Often used with the.


[Middle English horrour, from Old French horreur, from Latin horror, from horrēre, to tremble.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

horror 
c.1375, from O.Fr. horreur, from L. horror "bristling, roughness, rudeness, shaking, trembling," from horrere "to bristle with fear, shudder," from PIE base *ghers- "to bristle" (cf. Skt. harsate "bristles," Avestan zarshayamna- "ruffling one's feathers," L. eris (gen.) "hedgehog," Welsh garw "rough"). As a genre in film, 1936. Chamber of horrors originally (1849) was a gallery of notorious criminals in Madame Tussaud's wax exhibition.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: hor·ror
Pronunciation: 'hor-&r, 'här-
Function: noun
: painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Idioms & Phrases

horror

see under throw up one's hands.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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