horror: Meaning and Definition of

hor•ror

Pronunciation: (hôr'ur, hor'-), [key]
— n.
  1. 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.
  2. anything that causes such a feeling: killing, looting, and other horrors of war.
  3. such a feeling as a quality or condition: to have known the horror of slow starvation.
  4. a strong aversion; abhorrence: to have a horror of emotional outbursts.
  5. something considered bad or tasteless: That wallpaper is a horror. The party was a horror.
    1. Seedelirium tremens.
    2. extreme depression.
—adj.
  1. inspiring or creating horror, loathing, aversion, etc.: The hostages told horror stories of their year in captivity.
  2. centered upon or depicting terrifying or macabre events: a horror movie.
—interj.
  1. (used as a mild expression of dismay, surprise, disappointment, etc.)
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.
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