terrible
adjective
- a feeling of despair or deep saddness
- a feeling of terror or dread
- generally awful; morally bad, fearsome, displeasing
- extremely unskilled at
- extremely unbeneficial, unhealthy
- extensive, intense
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈtɛɹəbəl/ / [ˈtɛɹəbl̩] / /ˈtɛɹɪbəl/
adj
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tres- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *troséyeti Proto-Italic *trozeō Latin terreō Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin terribilislbor. Old French terriblebor. Middle English terrible English terrible Inherited from Middle English terrible, from Old French terrible, from Latin terribilis (“frightful”), from terreō (“to frighten, terrify, alarm; to deter by terror, scare (away)”). Compare terror, deter. By surface analysis, terror + -ible. Displaced Old English atol and sliþe, while also largely overtaking grimm.
- Dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome
“The witch laid a terrible curse on him.”
“People who have not been in Narnia sometimes think that a thing cannot be good and terrible at the same time. If the children had ever thought so, they were cured of it now. For when they tried to look at Aslan's face they just caught a glimpse of the golden mane and the great, royal, solemn, overwhelming eyes; and then they found they couldn't look at him and went all trembly.”
- Formidable, powerful.
“[…]and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog," and "real old salt," and such-like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.”
“"He is the right sort of man for a labourer, but he is a terrible eater, to be sure," thought the farmer.”
- Intense; extreme in degree or extent.
“He paid a terrible price for his life of drinking.”
“‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?”
- Very unpleasant; disagreeable.
“The food was terrible, but it was free.”
“To Edward […] he was terrible, nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.”
- Very bad; lousy.
“Whatever he thinks, he is a terrible driver.”
“The openly ridiculous plot has The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) scheming to win the Pirate Of The Year competition, even though he’s a terrible pirate, far outclassed by rivals voiced by Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek.”
- Prone to a particular temptation.
“He's a terrible man for beer.”
“I should have known designing was in my blood as I'm terrible for tweaking patterns I'm stitching.”
adv
Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tres- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *troséyeti Proto-Italic *trozeō Latin terreō Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis Proto-Italic *-ðlis Latin -bilis Latin terribilislbor. Old French terriblebor. Middle English terrible English terrible Inherited from Middle English terrible, from Old French terrible, from Latin terribilis (“frightful”), from terreō (“to frighten, terrify, alarm; to deter by terror, scare (away)”). Compare terror, deter. By surface analysis, terror + -ible. Displaced Old English atol and sliþe, while also largely overtaking grimm.
- In a terrible way; to a terrible extent; terribly; awfully.
“‘Oh, terrible bad, sir, terrible deep the snow is,’ said the hedgehog.”