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hideous

[hid-ee-uh s]
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adjective
  1. horrible or frightful to the senses; repulsive; very ugly: a hideous monster.
  2. shocking or revolting to the moral sense: a hideous crime.
  3. distressing; appalling: the hideous expense of moving one's home to another city.

Origin of hideous

1275–1325; Middle English hidous < Old French hisdos, equivalent to hisde horror, fright (perhaps < Old High German *egisida, akin to egisôn, agison to frighten) + -os -ous; suffix later assimilated to -eous
Related formshid·e·ous·ly, adverbhid·e·ous·ness, hid·e·os·i·ty [hid-ee-os-i-tee] /ˌhɪd iˈɒs ɪ ti/, nounun·hid·e·ous, adjectiveun·hid·e·ous·ly, adverbun·hid·e·ous·ness, noun

Synonyms

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1, 2. grisly, grim; repellent, detestable, odious, monstrous, dreadful, appalling, ghastly.

Antonyms

1. attractive, pleasing.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for hideousness

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • The horrible, bitter truth had been forced upon her, and she saw it in all its hideousness.

    The White Lie

    William Le Queux

  • It was when he least endeavoured to conceal his character that its hideousness least appeared.

    The Young Duke

    Benjamin Disraeli

  • He had become so repulsive, that passing his hand over his face, he felt his own hideousness.

    Thais

    Anatole France

  • Some of the other pictures are wonderful, too—wonderful in their hideousness.

  • The hideousness of it oppressed her like a nightmare; yet her voice did not falter.

    The New Tenant

    E. Phillips Oppenheim

British Dictionary definitions for hideousness

hideous

adjective
  1. extremely ugly; repulsivea hideous person
  2. terrifying and horrific
Derived Formshideously, adverbhideousness or hideosity (ˌhɪdɪˈɒsɪtɪ), noun

Word Origin

C13: from Old French hisdos, from hisde fear; of uncertain origin
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for hideousness

n.

late 14c., from hideous + -ness.

hideous

adj.

c.1300, "terrifying, horrible, dreadful," from Anglo-French hidous, Old French hideus, earlier hisdos "hideous, horrible, awful, frightening" (11c.; Modern French hideux), from hisda "horror, fear," perhaps of Germanic origin; or else from Vulgar Latin *hispidosus, from Latin hispidus "shaggy, bristly," "[b]ut this presents numerous difficulties" [OED]. Meaning "repulsive" is late 14c.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper