horrorn.
/ˈhɒrə/, U.S. /ˈhɔrər/ 1. † b. transferred. Roughness or nauseousness of taste, such as to cause a shudder or thrill. Obsolete.
a. Roughness, ruggedness. (In 1382 a literalism of translation; now poetic or rhetorical. Cf. horrid adj. 1.)
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > unevenness > [noun] > roughness
rowa1250
horror1382
roughnessa1398
ruggishness?1541
unsmoothness1598
scabredity1624
squalora1637
scabrosity1657
scabridity1870
scragginess1885
1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Deut. xxxii. 10 The Lord..foond hym in a deseert loond, in place of orrour [a1425 L.V. ethir hidousnesse], and of waast wildernes.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis vii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 401 Which thick with Shades, and a brown Horror, stood.
1774 T. Pennant Tour Scotl. 1772 39 The horror of precipice, broken crag or overhanging rock.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > taste and flavour > unsavouriness > [noun]
weffec1440
horror1477
unsavouriness1557
nastiness1868
1477 T. Norton Ordinall of Alchimy v, in E. Ashmole Theatrum Chem. Britannicum (1652) 73 Over-sharpe, too bitter, or of greate horrour.
2. † b. Ruffling of surface; rippling. Obsolete. (Cf. 1.)
a. A shuddering or shivering; now esp. (Medicine) as a symptom of disease.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in specific manner > alternating or reciprocating motion > oscillation > vibration > [noun] > trembling or quivering > with cold, infirmity, or emotion
quakingeOE
trembling1303
shivering1398
shruggingc1400
quivering1538
horror1541
tremor1615
1541 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) 52 b Horrour or shrovelynge of the body myxt with heate.
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §700 Squeaking or Skriching Noise, make a Shiuering or Horrour in the Body, and set the Teeth on edge.
a1693 J. Aubrey Brief Lives: Harvey (1898) I. 301 His way was to rise out of his bed and walke about his chamber in his shirt till he was pretty cool, i.e., till he began to have a horror.
1706 Phillips's New World of Words (new ed.) Horrour..Among Physicians 'tis taken for a shivering and trembling of the Skin over the whole Body, with a Chilness after it.
1743 tr. L. Heister Gen. Syst. Surg. I. i. 192 It generally seizes the Patient with a Horror or Shivering.
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. II. 110 The first attack generally commenced with a horror.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > flow or flowing > wave > movement of waves > [noun] > rippling
popplingc1575
horror1598
rippling1600
cockling1629
wimplinga1758
ripple?1760
jabble1831
1598 G. Chapman tr. Homer Seauen Bks. Iliades iii. 48 Such fresh horror as you see, driuen through the wrinckled waues.
1765 Antiq. in Ann. Reg. 181/1 A gentle horror glides over its [the sea's] smooth surface.
3.
a. A painful emotion compounded of loathing and fear; a shuddering with terror and repugnance; strong aversion mingled with dread; the feeling excited by something shocking or frightful. Also in weaker sense, intense dislike or repugnance. (The prevalent use at all times.)
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > hatred > loathing or detestation > emotion compounded of fear and loathing > [noun]
horror1382
horribleness1398
horringc1568
the mind > emotion > fear > physical symptoms of fear > [noun] > shudder or shuddering
trembling1303
quakea1350
horror1382
grilling1398
shudderingc1440
grueing1489
shuddera1616
horridity1623
flesh-quake1631
quiver1786
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of terror or horror > [noun] > horror
grislea1225
grising?c1225
uga1240
hidourc1315
ugginga1325
uglinessc1325
horror1382
grisness1398
horribleness1398
hideousnessa1425
hideousshipc1430
ugrinessc1480
horringc1568
horrorie1600
phobia1786
horrification1801
aghastness1845
the mind > emotion > hatred > loathing or detestation > emotion compounded of fear and loathing > [noun] > quality of being horrible
horror1382
horribleness1398
horridnessa1631
horriditya1641
1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) Ezek. xxxii. 10 The kyngis..with ful myche orrour shulen be agast vpon thee.
c1386 G. Chaucer Parson's Tale ⁋149 Ther shal horrour and grisly drede dwellen with-outen ende.
c1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 371/1 Orrowre, horror.
c1480 (a1400) St. Matthias 47 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 223 Gret horroure had þai alsa, for sic dremynge.
1531 W. Bonde Pilgrymage of Perfeccyon (de Worde) sig. p.viv Affeccyon & loue to this present worlde, horrour [1526 herrour] & despeccyon of the worlde to come.
1602 J. Marston Hist. Antonio & Mellida iv. sig. H A sodden horror doth inuade my blood.
1632 J. Hayward tr. G. F. Biondi Eromena 30 Foure bodies..whereof (to their great horror) they knew at the first sight their Mistresse and the Prince.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics i, in tr. Virgil Wks. 62 Deep horrour seizes ev'ry Humane Breast. View more context for this quotation
1725 D. Defoe New Voy. round World ii. 4 The Mountains of Andes..so frightful for their Height, that 'tis not to be thought of without some Horror.
1756 E. Burke Vindic. Nat. Society 43 On the Return of Reason he begun to conceive an Horror suitable to the guilt of such a murder.
1833 N. Arnott Elements Physics (ed. 5) I. 349 What was called nature's horror of a vacuum.
1867 G. MacDonald Ann. Quiet Neighbourhood I. iii. 41 I had a horror of becoming a moral policeman as much as of ‘doing church’.
1872 C. Darwin Expression Emotions Man & Animals xii. 304 He who dreads, as well as hates a man, will feel, as Milton uses the word, a horror of him.
b. plural the horrors (colloquial): a fit of horror or extreme depression; spec. such as occurs in delirium tremens.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [noun] > fit of
gloominga1400
dumpa1535
mubble fubbles1589
mulligrubs1599
mumps1599
mood1609
blues1741
mopes1742
gloom1744
humdrums1757
dismals1764
horror1768
mournfuls1794
doldrum1811
doleful1822
glumps1825
jim-jams1896
katzenjammer1897
the sniffles1903
mopery1907
joes1916
woofits1918
cafard1924
jimmies1928
the blahs1969
downer1970
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of terror or horror > [noun] > horror > fit of horror
horror1768
1768 O. Goldsmith Good Natur'd Man iv. 51 He is coming this way all in the horrors.
1780 J. Adams in J. Adams & A. Adams Familiar Lett. (1876) 382 London is in the horrors. Governor Hutchinson fell down dead at the first appearance of mobs.
1818 S. E. Ferrier Marriage I. iii. 37 As you promise our stay shall be short, if I don't die of the horrors, I shall certainly try to make the agreeable.
1888 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Robbery under Arms I. i. 6 He does drink, of course..the worst of it is that too much of it brings on the ‘horrors’.
1893 C. G. Leland Memoirs II. 20 To be regarded as a real Bohemian vagabond..would..have given me the horrors.
c. As int. (usually plural). An exclamation indicating shock, surprise, fear, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of terror or horror > exclamation of terror or horror [interjection]
oh1533
horror1879
crivens1917
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > surprise, unexpectedness > exclamation of surprise [interjection] > mingled with horror
Heavens above1588
Heavens to Betsy1588
horror1879
crivens1917
1879 L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) xi. 152 Went to Shepherd's Bush. Oh, horror—stinking underground.
1879 L. Troubridge Life amongst Troubridges (1966) xi. 153 The train went off without us! Oh, horror, no other train to Penzance.
1893 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Feb. 6/4 Horrors!.. You don't mean that you're going to carry it any further?
1914 E. R. Burroughs Tarzan of Apes xvi. 207 Horrors! The lion was bounding along in easy leaps scarce five paces behind.
1928 ‘Brent of Bin Bin’ Up Country xvi. 284 After that was Miss Oswald—horrors, supposing she proposed too!
1973 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Aug. 1007/3 Lord Crouch pulls strings to get..the Yard for the murder near his stately home, but horrors!—for him, anyway—when what he gets is [Inspector] Dover.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > awe > [noun]
awec1175
horror1579
religiona1642
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > feeling of wonder, astonishment > awe, reverential wonder > [noun]
stupora1398
fearc1400
awfulness1574
horror1579
religiona1642
awe1743
1579 W. Fulke Heskins Parl. Repealed in D. Heskins Ouerthrowne 129 That sacrifice most full of horror and reuerence, where the uniuersall Lorde of all thinges is daily felt with handes.
a1670 J. Hacket Scrinia Reserata (1693) ii. 56 That super-cœlestial food in the Lord's Supper which a Christian ought not once to think of without a sacred kind of horror and reverence.
1716 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad II. viii. 36 A rev'rend Horror silenc'd all the Sky.
1820 W. Hazlitt Lect. Dramatic Lit. 321 The interest will be instantly heightened to a sort of pleasing horror.]
5. transferred.
a. The quality of exciting repugnance and dread; horribleness; a quality or condition, and concrete a thing, or person, which excites these feelings; something horrifying. Chamber of Horrors, the name given to a room in Madame Tussaud's waxwork exhibition, containing effigies of noted criminals and the like; hence transferred a place full of horrors.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > visual arts > plastic art > modelling > [noun] > model > in wax > specific collection
pantheon1711
waxwork1763
Chamber of Horrors1856
wax museum1963
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of being horrible > [noun] > person or thing which inspires horror > chamber of horrors
Chamber of Horrors1895
1413 Pilgr. Sowle (1483) iii. x. 56 The grete horrour therof may not be lykened ne declared.
c1480 (a1400) St. James Less 695 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 170 To þe thefys horroure alvay.
1489 W. Caxton tr. C. de Pisan Bk. Fayttes of Armes iii. xvii. 208 To putte a man in an euyl pryson and constrayne by tormentynges..is an homynable horreur.
1594 S. Daniel Trag. Cleopatra iii. ii This solitary Horror where I bide.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) ii. iii. 80 As from your Graues rise vp, and walke like Sprights, To countenance this horror . View more context for this quotation
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) v. v. 13 I haue supt full with horrors . View more context for this quotation
1748 B. Robins & R. Walter Voy. round World by Anson iii. vii. 357 The Centurion, fitted for war..was the horror of these dastards.
1805 E. Wynne Diary 4 Mar. in Wynne Diaries (1940) III. 160 He [Count Barlowsky] is a little horror.
1831 W. M. Praed Where is Miss Myrtle in Poems ii I brought her, one morning, a rose for her brow..She told me such horrors were never worn now.
1846 E. Hall Diary 11 June in O. A. Sherrard Two Victorian Girls (1966) xvii. 162 Took the horrors for a drive, and even in the carriage Sydney and Cornelia could not behave themselves.
1849 W. M. Thackeray Pendennis (1850) I. xxxvii. 362 That collection of old fogies..ought to be cast in wax, and set up at Madame Tussaud's—..In the chamber of horrors!
1856 Amy Carlton 126 I want to see the Chamber of Horrors. It is full of wax models of the most wicked people that ever lived.
1859 Macmillan's Mag. Dec. 132/2 A series of magic lantern slides from some ‘chambers of horrors’, which he presumes to call the Legend of the Ages.
1861 P. B. Du Chaillu Explor. Equatorial Afr. 180 I dreamed..of serpents that night, for they are my horror.
1889 A. Barrère & C. G. Leland Dict. Slang I. 235 Chamber of Horrors, the Peeresses' gallery at the House of Lords, from its being railed round as if it contained objectionable or repulsive inmates.
1891 J. S. Farmer Slang II. 69 Chamber of Horrors, sausages.
1895 R. L. Douglas in Bookman Oct. 22/2 Louis was in a large measure responsible for the horrors of the Revolution.
1899 Daily Chron. 2 Mar. 9/1 This..room.. is one of terrible interest, for the ‘flimsies’ record the lost and overdue vessels, and the place bears the gruesome and apt title of ‘Chamber of Horrors’.
1909 J. R. Ware Passing Eng. Victorian Era 69/2 Chamber of Horrors, the name of the corridor or repository in which Messrs Christie..locate the valueless pictures that are sent to them.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xvi. [Eumaeus] 584 He..stowed the weapon in question away as before in his chamber of horrors, otherwise pocket.
1958 Spectator 6 June 746/2 Children adore reading about little horrors being taken down a peg.
1959 A. Huxley Let. 13 Feb. (1969) 866 Passages on infant damnation from St. Augustine... Passages on Jesus as a salesman from Bruce Barton. And so forth. A few pages of these wd constitute a stimulating Chamber of Horrors.
1959 Times Lit. Suppl. 10 July 409/2 A diary kept by an elderly horror whose name we never learn.
b. = horror film n. at Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > cinematography > a film > type of film > [noun] > horror film
horror film1936
Hammer horror1958
horror1958
giallo1965
schlocker1969
shlock horror movie1971
splatterpunk1988
shlock horror film1989
1958 Vogue July 47/1 The American horrors pour out at an average of three a month: The Man without a Body..Back from the Dead.
1958 Economist 6 Dec. 868/2 ‘Horror’ is a generic term covering a wide range of films whose only common link is that they all contain a monster.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a.
horror joke n.
ΚΠ
1962 W. H. Auden Dyer's Hand vii. 372 A few years ago, there was a rage in New York for telling ‘Horror Jokes’.
horror magazine n.
ΚΠ
1939 R. Chandler Big Sleep x. 75 A fresh-faced kid was reading a horror magazine.
horror-monger n.
ΚΠ
1797 A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl VI. iv. 181 Her reality would have outdone the best horror-monger of the age.
horror-mongering n.
ΚΠ
1887 G. Saintsbury Hist. Elizabethan Lit. xi. 425 A specimen of horror-mongering.
horror-photograph n.
ΚΠ
1954 A. Koestler Invisible Writing xxxi. 333 He insisted on adding to the book a supplement of horror-photographs on glossy paper.
horror story n.
ΚΠ
1937 E. Snow Red Star over China i. i. 22 A torrent of horror-stories about Red atrocities.
1963 Listener 7 Mar. 428/1 The horror story afforded scope for the more primitive fears and desires that had gradually been squeezed out of the English novel.
1970 Nature 5 Dec. 900/2 Both argued that the ‘horror stories’ of genetic engineering are completely out of the question, at least in the foreseeable future.
b.
horror-crowned adj.
ΚΠ
1851 C. L. Smith tr. T. Tasso Jerusalem Delivered v. xliv Engirt with steel, and horror-crowned.
horror-fraught adj.
ΚΠ
1812 G. Colman Poet. Vagaries 65 A moment horror-fraught!
horror-inspiring adj.
horror-loving adj.
ΚΠ
1909 Westm. Gaz. 1 May 13/2 The same horror-loving multitude flocks to its haunts of pleasure.
horror-stricken adj.
ΚΠ
1805 ‘E. de Acton’ Nuns of Desert I. 41 The horror-stricken witnesses.
1818 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 33 41 She seemed horror-stricken when some of her own agents..took the liberty to trade in human blood.
1876 W. Black Madcap Violet v He looked so horror-stricken that she nearly laughed.
horror-struck adj.
ΚΠ
1814 J. Austen Mansfield Park III. vi. 134 William and Fanny were horror-struck at the idea. View more context for this quotation
1821 J. W. Croker in Diary 14 Aug. (1884) He looked horrorstruck and stopped short.
1857 J. Ruskin Polit. Econ. Art i. 20 We should be utterly horror-struck at the idea.
1953 R. Lehmann Echoing Grove 23 Horror-struck, they continued to stand watching.
c.
horror-strike v. rare
ΚΠ
1811 S. T. Coleridge Own Times (1850) 906 Though [they should] attempt to horror-strike us with the signature of Cambro-Hibern-Anglo-Scotus!
C2.
horror comic n. a children's comic (sense 4a) in which the principal ingredients of the pictures and stories are violence and sensationalism.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > journalism > journal > periodical > [noun] > comic
comic1892
comic book1904
love comic1948
horror comic1954
manhwa1988
1954 Time 8 Nov. 60/3 Public criticism of horror comics.
1959 J. Cary Captive & Free lvi. 244 She had been all for the Bill putting down the horror comics, though her husband had been against it.
1964 J. M. Argyle Psychol. & Social Probl. iv. 51 There has been considerable public anxiety about the possible effect of television shows, films and horror comics on children.
1973 Guardian 28 Mar. 10/6 It was jokey in a horror-comic way, but I don't think horror is a reasonable reaction to a horror-comic.
horror film n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > cinematography > a film > type of film > [noun] > horror film
horror film1936
Hammer horror1958
horror1958
giallo1965
schlocker1969
shlock horror movie1971
splatterpunk1988
shlock horror film1989
1936 Variety 1 July 1/5 Recently showed..horror films and Sino-Japanese War cruelty shots.
1952 M. McCarthy Groves of Academe (1953) iii. 31 Miss Rejner and her boy-tutee..sat transfixed, as in a horror-film, watching the knob turn.
1965 Listener 18 Nov. 805/1 The connoisseur of the horror film knows instinctively that Son of Dracula will lack the blood chilling quality of Dracula.
1971 B. W. Aldiss Soldier Erect 10 My eyelids flickered like an ancient horror film, revealing acres of white-of-eye.
horror movie n.
ΚΠ
1965 Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 3 June (1970) 280 Tall plants called gorgonian..for all the world like those plants you see in horror movies.
1972 ‘R. Crawford’ Whip Hand i. iii. 11 A horror movie, vehicle for a Hollywood godling who had been in his grave for a decade.
horror picture n. a film designed to horrify, usually by the depiction of violence and the supernatural.
ΚΠ
1937 New Yorker 9 Jan. 13/2 Mr. Arthur L. Mayer took over the..theatre, put in horror pictures (zombies and draculas), and he has made it pay every week.
1960 Times 14 Jan. 6/3 The world-wide success of the so-called ‘horror’ pictures made by Hammer Films.
Derivatives
ˈhorror v.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of being horrible > horrify [verb (transitive)]
agrisec1225
uga1250
freeze1398
curl1530
abhor1531
to chill the (also a person's) blood1637
horror1642
horrorize1820
horrify1822
behorror1857
to curl (a person's) hair1949
1642 E. Dering Coll. Speeches on Relig. 85 Truly (Sir) it horrors me to thinke of this.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of being horrible > horrify [verb (transitive)]
agrisec1225
uga1250
freeze1398
curl1530
abhor1531
to chill the (also a person's) blood1637
horror1642
horrorize1820
horrify1822
behorror1857
to curl (a person's) hair1949
1820 R. Southey in C. C. Southey Life & Corr. R. Southey (1850) V. 19 In my next letter I shall probably horrorize you about these said verses.
1856 ‘T. Gwynne’ Young Singleton xv. 250 The corpse lay..with the same horrorized yet defying expression of face.
ˈhorrorful adj.
ˈhorrorish adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of being horrible > [adjective]
atelOE
grislya1150
atelichc1175
grisfula1300
ugly13..
hideous1303
horrible1303
ghastlyc1305
stout1338
horrendc1420
ugsomec1425
grisilc1440
execrable1490
uggle1499
horrious?1520
uglisome1530
ugglesome1561
gruesome1570
grisy1590
gashfulc1600
horrid1602
ghast1622
gashly1627
horrific1653
horrendous1661
horrorous1756
horrifying1791
horrorish1847
grauly1848
1847 J. Mackintosh Diary 10 June in Macleod Mem. (1854) 124 Pensive but not horrorish.
ˈhorrorous adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of being horrible > [adjective]
atelOE
grislya1150
atelichc1175
grisfula1300
ugly13..
hideous1303
horrible1303
ghastlyc1305
stout1338
horrendc1420
ugsomec1425
grisilc1440
execrable1490
uggle1499
horrious?1520
uglisome1530
ugglesome1561
gruesome1570
grisy1590
gashfulc1600
horrid1602
ghast1622
gashly1627
horrific1653
horrendous1661
horrorous1756
horrifying1791
horrorish1847
grauly1848
1756 Gentleman's Mag. 26 254 That they should gall a reeking wound, and produce horrorous effects.
ˈhorrorsome adj. full of, characterized by, or producing horror.
ΚΠ
1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares f. 38 Some part of thy desolations description woulde I borrow, to make it more horrorsome.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of terror or horror > [noun] > horror
grislea1225
grising?c1225
uga1240
hidourc1315
ugginga1325
uglinessc1325
horror1382
grisness1398
horribleness1398
hideousnessa1425
hideousshipc1430
ugrinessc1480
horringc1568
horrorie1600
phobia1786
horrification1801
aghastness1845
1600 C. Tourneur Transformed Metamorph. Prol. sig. A4 The ecchoized sounds of horrorie.
Draft additions September 2018
Film. Appositive (in sense 5b), as horror comedy, horror thriller, etc.In quot. 1929 with reference to a play.
ΚΠ
1929 Hollywood Filmograph 1 June 3/2 ‘Dracula.’ Horror thriller. with Bela Lugosi.
1932 N.Y. Times 3 Jan. (Screen section) 5/7 Paramount's list of releases... Those to be released in January include a horror-thriller, one sugary Pollyanna tale, two drawing-room dramas and one tragic drama.
1933 Washington Post 12 Mar. s5/2 ‘The Rummy’, a horror comedy being produced at the Hal Roach studios.
1958–9 Sight & Sound Winter 10/2 The Fiend Who Walked the West..was astutely billed as the first horror Western.
1990 N.Y. Mag. 30 July 51/1 Arachnophobia is a horror comedy with a sun-shiny smile.
2001 Classic FM Aug. 38/3 Shocking twists are dramatically preceded by nerve-testing quiet in countless horror-thrillers.
2013 M. Blake & S. Bailey Writing Horror Movie xi. 134 There is always the horror musical, whose principal proponents are The Little Shop of Horrors..and..The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1899; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1382