horror
[hawr-er, hor-]
- an overwhelming and painful feeling caused by something frightfully shocking, terrifying, or revolting; a shuddering fear: to shrink back from a mutilated corpse in horror.
- anything that causes such a feeling: killing, looting, and other horrors of war.
- such a feeling as a quality or condition: to have known the horror of slow starvation.
- a strong aversion; abhorrence: to have a horror of emotional outbursts.
- Informal. something considered bad or tasteless: That wallpaper is a horror. The party was a horror.
- horrors, Informal.
- delirium tremens.
- extreme depression.
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- inspiring or creating horror, loathing, aversion, etc.: The hostages told horror stories of their year in captivity.
- centered upon or depicting terrifying or macabre events: a horror movie.
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- horrors, (used as a mild expression of dismay, surprise, disappointment, etc.)
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Origin of horror
1520–30; < Latin horror, equivalent to horr- (stem of horrēre to bristle with fear; see horrendous) + -or -or1; replacing Middle English orrour < Anglo-French < Latin horrōr-, stem of horror
Synonyms
See more synonyms for horror on Thesaurus.com1. dread, dismay, consternation. See terror. 4. loathing, antipathy, detestation, hatred, abomination.
Antonyms
1. serenity. 4. attraction.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for horror
Contemporary Examples
In the end, the clarity that comes from moments of horror can help us recommit to deeper principles.
“Internationally there has been a lot of horror and contempt for her actions, domestically very little,” he said.
The grief in this house is extreme of course; this is a horror movie, after all.
Of course, you can read this just as a brilliant, subversive coda to a horror movie.
Like many other Pakistani Taliban, Jamal has his own horror stories to tell, which he believes can justify any bloody retribution.
Historical Examples
Then came smoke, the smell of scorching linen, and a cry of horror from Celine.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
There must be women there, and women meant screams, horror, betrayal.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
So I said I didn't love her to save her from the knowledge of this horror.
VivietteWilliam J. Locke
Her friends advised her to leave it, but she had a horror of removal, of change.
Life and Death of Harriett FreanMay Sinclair
He was not halfway around the house before he heard a voice that chilled him with horror.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
horror
- extreme fear; terror; dread
- intense loathing; hatred
- (often plural) a thing or person causing fear, loathing, etc
- (modifier) having a frightening subject, esp a supernatural onea horror film
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin: a trembling with fear; compare hirsute
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 horror
n.
early 14c., from Old French horror (12c., Modern French horreur) and directly from Latin horror "dread, veneration, religious awe," a figurative use, literally "a shaking, trembling, shudder, chill," from horrere "to bristle with fear, shudder," from PIE root *ghers- "to bristle" (cf. Sanskrit harsate "bristles," Avestan zarshayamna- "ruffling one's feathers," Latin eris (genitive) "hedgehog," Welsh garw "rough"). As a genre in film, 1934. Chamber of horrors originally (1849) was a gallery of notorious criminals in Madame Tussaud's wax exhibition.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with horror
horror
see under throw up one's hands.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.