adjective
Extremely unpleasant, horrifying, or terrible.
‘she suffered horrendous injuries’
- ‘The victims have suffered a horrendous ordeal and quite appalling injuries in the case of Mr Francis.’
- ‘It's great for Roger because he's had a hard time since he suffered a horrendous injury last season.’
- ‘The poster showing the Jack Russell's horrendous injuries can be seen in the background.’
- ‘Cheap and nasty food becomes even cheaper and nastier to subsidise the horrendous wastage.’
- ‘I am not going to give you examples, but there were two really horrendous stories, awful.’
- ‘The case of these missing girls is gruesome enough without such horrendous false alarms.’
- ‘He lost an eye and an arm, as well as suffering horrendous internal injuries.’
- ‘We see some terrible cases but this is the most horrendous for some time.’
- ‘More recently, he has endured the most horrendous bad luck in terms of injuries.’
- ‘The atrocities committed on all sides were horrendous and on a gargantuan scale.’
- ‘Now everyone in the media agrees what a horrendous mistake it was not to follow up on it.’
- ‘We are united in our stand to bring to justice those that perpetrated such a horrendous act of murder.’
- ‘A ban on this horrendous daily cruelty to thousands of animals would impact on the profits of food producers.’
- ‘The drive home was horrendous, with repeated hold-ups and long, long tailbacks.’
- ‘I climb out of my top bunk and get my Walkman in the hopes that music will drown out the horrendous noise.’
- ‘Why do these criminals feel they can perpetrate such horrendous crimes and get away with it?’
- ‘The consequences, had what they were doing led to a train being derailed, could have been horrendous.’
- ‘But if a referee makes a catalogue of horrendous blunders, who's going to take him to task?’
- ‘They sometimes feel their own situation is horrendous and no-one else can possibly be in the same boat.’
- ‘Kenny Smith feared for his life on the Ullapool to Stornaway Calmac ferry during a horrendous storm.’
horrible, dreadful, horrifying, horrific, frightful, fearful, awful, terrible, shocking, appalling, hideous, grim, grisly, ghastly, harrowing, gruesome, heinous, vile, nightmarish, macabre, unspeakable, hair-raising, spine-chilling
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Origin
Mid 17th century from Latin horrendus (gerundive of horrere ‘(of hair) stand on end’) + -ous.