Adjacent Words

Atrocious definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ATRO'CIOUS, a. [L. atrox, trux, fierce, cruel.]
1. Extremely hainous, criminal or cruel; enormous; outrageous; as atrocious guilt or offense.
2. Very grievous; violent; as atrocious distempers.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: shockingly brutal or cruel; "murder is an atrocious crime"; "a grievous offense against morality"; "a grievous crime"; "no excess was too monstrous for them to commit" [syn: atrocious, flagitious, grievous, monstrous]
2: exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste"; "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room" [syn: atrocious, abominable, awful, dreadful, painful, terrible, unspeakable]
3: provoking horror; "an atrocious automobile accident"; "a frightful crime of decapitation"; "an alarming, even horrifying, picture"; "war is beyond all words horrible"- Winston Churchill; "an ugly wound" [syn: atrocious, frightful, horrifying, horrible, ugly]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: Latin atroc-, atrox gloomy, atrocious, from atr-, ater black + -oc-, -ox (akin to Greek ?ps eye) — more at eye Date: 1658 1. extremely wicked, brutal, or cruel ; barbaric 2. appalling, horrifying <the atrocious weapons of modern war> 3. a. utterly revolting ; abominable <atrocious working conditions> b. of very poor quality <atrocious handwriting> • atrociously adverb • atrociousness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 very bad or unpleasant (atrocious weather; their manners were atrocious). 2 extremely savage or wicked (atrocious cruelty). Derivatives: atrociously adv. atrociousness n. Etymology: L atrox -ocis cruel

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Atrocious A*tro"cious, a. [L. atrox, atrocis, cruel, fierce: cf. F. atroce.] 1. Extremely heinous; full of enormous wickedness; as, atrocious quilt or deeds. 2. Characterized by, or expressing, great atrocity. Revelations . . . so atrocious that nothing in history approaches them. --De Quincey. 3. Very grievous or violent; terrible; as, atrocious distempers. [Obs.] --Cheyne. Syn: Atrocious, Flagitious, Flagrant. Usage: Flagitious points to an act as grossly wicked and vile; as, a flagitious proposal. Flagrant marks the vivid impression made upon the mind by something strikingly wrong or erroneous; as, a flagrant misrepresentation; a flagrant violation of duty. Atrocious represents the act as springing from a violent and savage spirit. If Lord Chatham, instead of saying ``the atrocious crime of being a young man,'' had used either of the other two words, his irony would have lost all its point, in his celebrated reply to Sir Robert Walpole, as reported by Dr. Johnson. -- A*tro"cious*ly, adv. -- A*tro"cious*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe something as atrocious, you are emphasizing that its quality is very bad. The food here is atrocious. = appalling, abominable ADJ [emphasis] • atrociously He had written the note from memory, word perfect, and spelled atrociously. ADV: ADV adj/-ed, ADV after v 2. If you describe someone's behaviour or their actions as atrocious, you mean that it is unacceptable because it is extremely violent or cruel. The judge said he had committed atrocious crimes against women... = appalling ADJ 3. If you say that weather conditions are atrocious, you mean they are very bad, for example that it is extremely cold, wet, or windy. = appalling ADJ

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. Infamous, villanous, flagitious, heinous, felonious, flagrant, outrageous, enormous, grievous, nefarious, diabolical, monstrous, infernal, hellish, horrible, black, very wicked, excessively cruel.

Moby Thesaurus

Draconian, Tartarean, aberrant, abject, abnormal, abominable, abusive, acute, afflictive, agonizing, animal, anthropophagous, appalling, arrant, atrocious, awful, backhand, backhanded, bad, baneful, barbaric, barbarous, base, beastly, beggarly, beneath contempt, bestial, biting, black, blamable, blameworthy, bloodthirsty, bloody, bloody-minded, brutal, brutalized, brute, brutish, calumnious, cannibalistic, cheesy, contemptible, contumelious, cramping, criminal, cruel, cruel-hearted, crummy, crying, damnable, dark, debased, degraded, degrading, delinquent, demoniac, demoniacal, deplorable, depraved, desperate, despicable, detestable, deviant, devilish, diabolic, dire, dirty, disgraceful, disgusting, displeasing, distasteful, distressing, dreadful, egregious, enormous, evil, excruciating, execrable, fell, feral, ferine, ferocious, fetid, fiendish, fiendlike, fierce, filthy, flagitious, flagrant, foul, frightful, fulsome, ghastly, glaring, gnawing, grave, grievous, grim, griping, grisly, gross, gruesome, hard, hardly the thing, harrowing, harsh, hateful, heinous, hellish, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying, humiliating, hurtful, hurting, icky, ignominious, illegal, improper, inappropriate, incorrect, indecorous, infamous, infernal, inhuman, inhumane, iniquitous, insolent, insulting, kill-crazy, knavish, lamentable, left-handed, little, loathsome, lousy, low, low-down, lumpen, malign, malignant, mangy, mean, measly, merciless, miserable, monstrous, murderous, nasty, naughty, nefarious, noisome, noncivilized, not done, not the thing, notorious, obnoxious, obscene, odious, off-base, off-color, offensive, out-of-line, outrageous, painful, paltry, paroxysmal, peccant, petty, piercing, pitiable, pitiful, pitiless, poignant, poky, poor, pungent, racking, rank, regrettable, reprehensible, reprobate, rotten, ruthless, sacrilegious, sad, sadistic, sanguinary, sanguineous, satanic, savage, scabby, scandalous, schlock, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurrile, scurrilous, scurvy, severe, shabby, shameful, shameless, sharkish, sharp, shocking, shoddy, shooting, sickening, sinful, slavering, small, sordid, spasmatic, spasmic, spasmodic, squalid, stabbing, stinging, subhuman, tameless, terrible, too bad, tormenting, torturous, tragic, truculent, unchristian, uncivilized, unclean, undue, unfit, unfitting, unforgivable, ungentle, unhuman, unlawful, unmentionable, unpardonable, unrighteous, unseemly, unspeakable, unsuitable, untamed, unworthy, vicious, vile, villainous, wicked, wild, woeful, wolfish, worst, worthless, wretched, wrong, wrongful