abhorribleadj.

1602 A. Copley Another Let. to Dis-iesuited Kinseman 31 Thou art a contemptible, detestable, abhorrible fellow.

1633 T. Adams Comm. 2 Peter (ii. 7) 649 How abhorrible is that vice, which shall rob a man of himselfe, and lay a beast in his roome?

1681 Char. Ill-Court-Favourite 16 Let there not be any, who Day and Night besiegeth the King, who by a violent Usurpation (the most abhorrible Monopoly in Nature) appropriates him to himself.

1721 W. C. Dooms-Day 45 There are diverse other Crimes, far more grievous and abominable in their Nature, and consequently more abhorrible than any of these.

1789 J. Smith Moral Telescope 52 To retract at any future period would have rendered them abhorrible in the eyes of the world.

1822 J. Scott Life Rev. T. Scott (ed. 5, 1823) xvi. 531 O Lord, abhor me not—though I be indeed abhorrible, and abhor myself!

1849 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Nov. 646 Hamlet's uncle, Claudius, seems to me to be the most that can be borne of one purely abhorrible.

1862 Illustr. Times 17 May 46/3 The relief consists..in being fed upon detestable gruel, and such other abhorrible viands as poor-law guardians may consider economical and proper.

1939 Brainerd (Minnesota) Daily Disp. 16 Sept. 5/1 Minnesota's scandals, while not to be condoned in any sense and abhorrible in their conception of good government, were petty in comparison.

2007 Austin (Texas) Amer.-Statesman (Nexis) 2 Mar. b1 Cute words that make things sound not nearly as abhorrible and atrocious as they really are.