definitions

hideous

[ hid-ee-uhs ]
/ ˈhɪd i əs /
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SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR hideous ON THESAURUS.COM

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.

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RELATED WORDS

macabre, ghastly, horrendous, abominable, dreadful, horrid, monstrous, disgusting, revolting, terrifying, odious, repulsive, hateful, awful, gruesome, nasty, shocking, grim, terrible, appalling

Nearby words

hide-and-seek, hideaway, hideaway bed, hidebound, hideosity, hideous, hideously, hideousness, hideout, hidey-hole, hideyoshi

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

Examples from the Web for hideous

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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper