See Also: Horror(medicine)
horror(dictionary)
horror(dictionary)
horror vacui(dictionary)
horror fusionis(medicine)
horror autotoxicus(medicine)
horror movie(dictionary)
horror story(dictionary)
horror-struck(dictionary)
horror story(encyclopedia)

horror (iou)



horror noun & adjective. ME.
[Old French (h)orrour (mod. horreur) from Latin horror, from horrere: see HORRIBLE, -OR.]
A. noun.
(A painful feeling of) intense loathing and fear; a terrified and revolted shuddering; a strong aversion or an intense dislike (of); colloq. dismay (at). ME.
V. Brittain The older generation held up outraged hands in horror at such sacrilege. H. E. Bates I felt..pure cold horror hit me more savagely than the wind.
b. (A feeling of) awe. L16-E18.
The quality of exciting intense loathing and fear; a person who or thing which excites such feelings; colloq. a mischievous person, esp. a child. Also, a genre of literature etc. designed to excite pleasurable feelings of horror by the depiction of the supernatural, violence, etc. LME.
Chamber of Horrors a place full of horrors (orig., the room containing effigies of notorious murderers and their victims, methods of execution, etc., in Madame Tussaud's waxworks).
E. Hall Took the horrors for a drive, and..Sydney and Cornelia could not behave themselves. S. Bellow Many of the things that terrified people lost their horror when a doctor explained them. E. Amadi Port Harcourt still bore the marks of the horrors of war.
a. An attack of shuddering or shivering, esp. as symptomatic of some disease. Now rare. LME.
b. the horrors, a fit of horror or depression, spec. as in delirium tremens. M18.
c. In pl. as interjection. Expr. shock, dismay, etc. L19.
Roughness, ruggedness. Now poet. L17.
Comb.: horror-stricken, horror-struck adjectives horrified, shocked.
b. attrib. or as adjective. Of literature, a film, etc.: designed to excite pleasurable feelings of horror by the depiction of the supernatural, violence, etc. M20.
horror comic a periodical like a comic but with much violence and sensationalism.
Variety Recently showed..horror films and Sino-Japanese War cruelty shots.