adjective
-
(esp of smells) offensive
-
harmful or noxious
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of noisome
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English noy (aphetic variant of annoy ) + -some 1
Explanation
If you accidentally leave half a sandwich under your bed for a few days, cover your nose while you sleep because it will probably become quite noisome. This is a fancy way of saying that it will stink. Despite that first syllable, this adjective doesn’t have root origins in the word noise; instead, it is related to the word annoy. Noisome can refer to anything unpleasant or anything that makes you feel a bit nauseous. However, it is most often used to describe things that smell badly. So spray some air freshener, open the windows, and clean out under your bed!
Vocabulary lists containing noisome
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Frankenstein
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This only resurrected the noisome history of Epstein and the Media Lab, which MIT surely hoped would be dead and buried after it issued an independent report on the matter in January 2020.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 16, 2024
Yet another in our series of noisome parasites that we offer as second prizes.
From Washington Post • Jun. 23, 2022
History is, for better and worse, an argument, a controversy, a noisy and even noisome wrangle over meanings and values.
From Slate • Oct. 21, 2020
Media scholar Tim Wu plunges into the noisome history of “attention harvesting” — the commodification of human attention by industry and government.
From Nature • Oct. 11, 2016
A dam across the Missouri River in Nebraska silted up so disastrously that a noisome ooze began to pour into the town of Niobrara, eventually forcing its permanent abandonment.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
