verb
-
to cause feelings of horror in; terrify; frighten
-
to dismay or shock greatly
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of horrify
1785–95; < Latin horrificāre to cause horror, equivalent to horri- (combining form of horrēre to bristle with fear; see horrendous) + -ficāre -fy
Explanation
To horrify is to cause someone to feel shocked and disturbed. It may horrify your parents if you announce that you're dropping out of school to become a professional clown. Things that horrify you fill you with terror, shock, or disgust. It would horrify you to run into a vampire on a dark city streets, and it would also horrify you to be served raw hamburger for lunch. The emotion that arises when something horrifies you is horror, a word that's the same in Latin, with the literal meaning "a shaking, a trembling, or a shudder."
Vocabulary lists containing horrify
List 7
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Stuart Little
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Lawn Boy
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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.
Add a strict appellation or classification system for France's wine regions, and the thought of blending French and Australian wine to create a global hybrid would horrify many French wine lovers.
From BBC • Jan. 24, 2025
Take the following quiz to imagine a future and learn if that future will horrify you.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2024
But it is just this demand—- the requirement that citizens find ways to navigate a social world which will, necessarily, often baffle and horrify them—- that liberal societies must impose.
From Salon • Sep. 9, 2023
But just as his irreverent novels dismay some adults, the tadpoles produce comics — all acted out hilariously onstage — that horrify their adoptive father.
From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2023
But some harbingers horrify the old-timers: upscale restaurants, boutique windows displaying expensive designer jewelry, and the arrival of the first-ever chain store, a Ralph Lauren shop.
From "Class Matters" by The New York Times
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.
