Adjacent Words

Horror definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

HOR'ROR, n. [L. from horreo, to shake or shiver, or to set up the bristles,to be rough.]
1. A shaking, shivering or shuddering, as in the cold fit which precedes a fever. This ague is usually accompanied with a contraction of the skin into small wrinkles, giving it a kind of roughness.
2. An excessive degree of fear,or a painful emotion which makes a person tremble; terror; a shuddering with fear; but appropriately, terror or a sensation approaching it, accompanied with hatred or detestation. Horror is often a passion compounded of fear and hatred or disgust. The recital of a bloody deed fills us with horror.
A horror of great darkness fell on Abram. Genesis 15.
Horror hath taken hold on me, because of the wicked that forsake thy law. Psalms 119.
3. That which may excite horror or dread; gloom; dreariness.
And breathes a browner horror on the woods.
4. Dreadful thoughts.
5. Distressing scenes; as the horrors of war or famine.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: intense and profound fear
2: something that inspires dislike; something horrible; "the painting that others found so beautiful was a horror to him"
3: intense aversion [syn: repugnance, repulsion, revulsion, horror]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English horrour, from Anglo-French *orur, from Latin horror action of bristling, from horr?re to bristle, shiver; akin to Sanskrit har?ate he is excited Date: 14th century 1. a. painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay <astonishment giving place to horror on the faces of the people about me — H. G. Wells> b. intense aversion or repugnance 2. a. the quality of inspiring horror ; repulsive, horrible, or dismal quality or character <contemplating the horror of their lives — Liam O'Flaherty> b. something that inspires horror 3. plural a state of extreme depression or apprehension II. adjective Date: 1936 calculated to inspire feelings of dread or horror ; bloodcurdling <a horror movie>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & adj. --n. 1 a painful feeling of loathing and fear. 2 a (often foll. by of) intense dislike. b (often foll. by at) colloq. intense dismay. 3 a a person or thing causing horror. b colloq. a bad or mischievous person etc. 4 (in pl.; prec. by the) a fit of horror, depression, or nervousness, esp. as in delirium tremens. 5 a terrified and revolted shuddering. 6 (in pl.) an exclamation of dismay. --attrib. adj. (of literature, films, etc.) designed to attract by arousing pleasurable feelings of horror. Phrases and idioms: Chamber of Horrors a place full of horrors (orig. a room of criminals etc. in Madame Tussaud's waxworks). horror-struck (or -stricken) horrified, shocked. Etymology: ME f. OF (h)orrour f. L horror -oris (as HORRID)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Horror Hor"ror, n. [Formerly written horrour.] [L. horror, fr. horrere to bristle, to shiver, to tremble with cold or dread, to be dreadful or terrible; cf. Skr. h?sh to bristle.] 1. A bristling up; a rising into roughness; tumultuous movement. [Archaic] Such fresh horror as you see driven through the wrinkled waves. --Chapman. 2. A shaking, shivering, or shuddering, as in the cold fit which precedes a fever; in old medical writings, a chill of less severity than a rigor, and more marked than an algor. 3. A painful emotion of fear, dread, and abhorrence; a shuddering with terror and detestation; the feeling inspired by something frightful and shocking. How could this, in the sight of heaven, without horrors of conscience be uttered? --Milton. 4. That which excites horror or dread, or is horrible; gloom; dreariness. Breathes a browner horror on the woods. --Pope. The horrors, delirium tremens. [Colloq.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(horrors) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. Horror is a feeling of great shock, fear, and worry caused by something extremely unpleasant. As I watched in horror the boat began to power away from me. = terror 2. If you have a horror of something, you are afraid of it or dislike it very much. ...his horror of death. N-SING: N of n 3. The horror of something, especially something that hurts people, is its very great unpleasantness. ...the horror of this most bloody of civil wars. N-SING: oft N of n 4. You can refer to extremely unpleasant or frightening experiences as horrors. Can you possibly imagine all the horrors we have undergone since I last wrote you? N-COUNT: usu pl 5. A horror film or story is intended to be very frightening. ...a psychological horror film. ADJ: ADJ n 6. You can refer to an account of a very unpleasant experience or event as a horror story. ...a horror story about lost luggage while flying. ADJ: ADJ n

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

hor'-er ('emah, pallatsuth): In Ge 15:12 'emah (often rendered "terror") is translated "horror," "a horror of great darkness"; pallatsuth, "trembling," "horror" (Ps 55:5; Eze 7:18); zal`aphah, "glow," "heat" (Ps 119:53, the Revised Version (British and American) "hot indignation," margin "horror"); compare Ps 11:6; La 5:10. For "trembling" (Job 21:6) and for "fearfulness" (Isa 21:4) the Revised Version (British and American) has "horror." "Horror" does not occur in the New Testament, but in 2 Macc 3:17 we have "The man was so compassed with horror" (phrikasmos), the Revised Version (British and American) "shuddering."

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Fright, affright, alarm, fear, dread, awe, terror, dismay, consternation, panic. 2. Abomination, abhorrence, detestation, disgust, loathing, hatred, antipathy. 3. (Med.) Shuddering, horripilation.

Moby Thesaurus

Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolf-man, abhorrence, abject fear, abomination, affright, alarm, allergy, angst, animosity, animus, antagonism, antipasto, antipathy, anxiety, apprehension, aversion, awe, blue funk, bogey, bogeyman, bugaboo, bugbear, clawing, cold sweat, consternation, cowardice, creeping flesh, cruciation, crucifixion, detestation, disgust, dislike, dismay, distaste, distress, dread, enmity, execration, fear, fear and trembling, fee-faw-fum, fright, frightener, funk, ghost, ghoul, hate, hatred, hell, hell upon earth, hobgoblin, holocaust, holy terror, horrification, hostility, incubus, laceration, lancination, loathing, martyrdom, monster, mortal horror, nausea, nervousness, nightmare, odium, ogre, ogress, pain, panic, panic fear, passion, persecution, perturbation, phantom, phobia, purgatory, queasiness, rack, rancor, repugnance, repulsion, revenant, revulsion, scare, scarebabe, scarecrow, scarer, shock, shuddering, specter, stampede, succubus, terror, torment, torture, trepidation, trepidity, uneasiness, unholy dread, upset, vampire, werewolf, whet, wrench