hideous

[ hid-ee-uhs ]

/ ˈhɪd i əs /

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adjective

horrible or frightful to the senses; repulsive; very ugly: a hideous monster.

shocking or revolting to the moral sense: a hideous crime.

distressing; appalling: the hideous expense of moving one's home to another city.

Nearby words

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

SYNONYMS FOR hideous

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

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ANTONYMS FOR hideous

1. attractive, pleasing.

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Related forms

hid·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, adverb

un·hid·e·ous·ness, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for hideous

On Christmas Day, sometime after dark, a hideous fire overtook the venue: 100 firefighters, 33 fire trucks, a four-alarm blaze.
The Fiery Death of Sotto Sotto, Toronto’s Celebrity Hotspot|Shinan Govani|December 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
To be clear, this account is in no way meant to excuse these hideous attacks—only perhaps to explain them.
Is Brooklyn Becoming Unsafe for Gays? It Depends On Which Ones|Jay Michaelson|October 18, 2014|DAILY BEAST
These “Book of Eli” deserts are where the imagined, however bizarre or hideous, can turn undeniably real.
ISIS and BS|Amal Ghandour|October 15, 2014|DAILY BEAST
With this hideous bushy outcrop, the beard has reached its end game.
Leo, the Beard Has to Go: When a Man’s Facial Hair Reaches Crisis Point|Tim Teeman|September 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST

The star is not entirely to blame for his hideous, hirsute transgression.
Leo, the Beard Has to Go: When a Man’s Facial Hair Reaches Crisis Point|Tim Teeman|September 22, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Ethelberta might have fallen dead with the shock, so terrible and hideous was it.
The Hand of Ethelberta|Thomas Hardy
Anna Petrovna was showing Sister K—— a large and hideous photograph of her children.
The Dark Forest|Hugh Walpole
With bloodshot eyes, and gaping mouth, and flaming nostrils, the hideous creature came rushing onwards.
The Story of Siegfried|James Baldwin
To say that a verse of Macaulay's was painful, or a line of Francis Newman's hideous, was well within his province.
Matthew Arnold|G. W. E. Russell
No conventional and hideous hat or bonnet disfigures the neat outline of their heads.
A War-time Journal, Germany 1914 and German Travel Notes|Harriet Julia Jephson

British Dictionary definitions for hideous

hideous

/ (ˈhɪdɪəs) /

adjective

extremely ugly; repulsivea hideous person

terrifying and horrific

Derived Formshideously, adverbhideousness or hideosity (ˌhɪdɪˈɒsɪtɪ), noun

Word Origin for hideous

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 hideous

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.

hideous

adjective

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Origin of hideous

Examples from the Web for hideous

hideous

adjective

Word Origin for hideous

hideous