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execrable

[ek-si-kruh-buh l]
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adjective
  1. utterly detestable; abominable; abhorrent.
  2. very bad: an execrable stage performance.
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Origin of execrable

1350–1400 for earlier sense “expressing a curse”; 1480–90 for def 1; Middle English < Latin ex(s)ecrābilis accursed, detestable. See execrate, -able
Related formsex·e·cra·ble·ness, nounex·e·cra·bly, adverb
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for execrable

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • And he's likely to talk the most execrable slang, or to quote Browning.

    The Spenders

    Harry Leon Wilson

  • Ah, I would willingly have killed that execrable Smith, for he was poisoning my life.

    My Double Life

    Sarah Bernhardt

  • Not a word of it seemed to be true, and the style in which it was written was execrable.

    Monday or Tuesday

    Virginia Woolf

  • Why should not they admit that little picture, although he himself thought it execrable?

    His Masterpiece

    Emile Zola

  • The host of the little inn had not exaggerated—the road was execrable.

British Dictionary definitions for execrable

execrable

adjective
  1. deserving to be execrated; abhorrent
  2. of very poor qualityan execrable meal
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Derived Formsexecrableness, nounexecrably, adverb

Word Origin

C14: from Latin exsecrābilis, from exsecrārī to execrate
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 execrable

adj.

late 14c., from Old French execrable, from Latin execrabilis/exsecrabilis "execrable, accursed," from execrari/exsecrari (see execrate). Related: Execrably.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper