atrocious
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin atrōx (“cruel, fierce, frightful”) + -ious.
Pronunciation
[edit]- enPR: ə-trō′-shəs
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˈtɹəʊʃəs/
- (General American) IPA(key): /əˈtɹoʊʃəs/
Audio (General Australian): (file) - Rhymes: -əʊʃəs
- Hyphenation: a‧tro‧cious
Adjective
[edit]atrocious (comparative more atrocious, superlative most atrocious)
- Frightful, evil, cruel, or monstrous.
- Prisons have been the sites of atrocious mistreatment of prisoners.
- Offensive or heinous.
- 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter III, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 55:
- I had resolved in my own mind, that to create another like the fiend I had first made would be an act of the basest and most atrocious selfishness; and I banished from my mind every thought that could lead to a different conclusion.
- Very bad; abominable, disgusting.
- Their taste in clothes is just atrocious.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Town-Ho’s Story. (As Told at the Golden Inn.)”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 280:
- Others of the sailors joined with them in this attempt, and a twisted turmoil ensued; while standing out of harm's way, the valiant captain danced up and down with a whale-pike, calling upon his officers to manhandle that atrocious scoundrel, and smoke him along to the quarter-deck.
- 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC, page 58:
- The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on a certain afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]frightful, evil, cruel, monstrous
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offensive, heinous
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very bad
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Categories:
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms suffixed with -ious
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/əʊʃəs
- Rhymes:English/əʊʃəs/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations