Horrid Meaning
/ˈhɒ.ɹɪd/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjBristling, rough, rugged.
adjCausing horror or dread.
Sentence Examples
I didn't like it a bit. It was horrid.
Sami described a horrid scene.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The meal was ____, with burnt meat and cold vegetables.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The smell coming from the abandoned building was absolutely ____ and made him gag.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰers-der. Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰr̥s-éh₁-(ye)-ti Proto-Italic *horzēō Latin horreō Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-der. Proto-Italic *-iðos Latin -idus Latin horridusbor. English horrid Borrowed from Latin horridus (“rough, bristly, savage, shaggy, rude”), from horrere (“to bristle”). See horrent, horror, ordure.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"His haughtie Helmet, horrid all with gold, // Both glorious brightnesse and great terror bredd."
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 31:
"Yea there, where very Desolation dwells, / By grots and caverns shagg'd with horrid shades, / She may pass on with unblench'd majesty, / Be it not done in pride, or in presumption."
— 1634 October 9 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:
"Horrid with fern, and intricate with thorn, / Few paths of human feet, or tracks of beasts, were worn."
— 1697, Virgil, “The Ninth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
"Not in the legions / Of horrid hell, can come a devil more damned / In evils, to top Macbeth."
— c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
"Give colour to my pale cheek with thy blood, / that we the horrider may seem to those / Which chance to find us;"
— 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The meal was ____, with burnt meat and cold vegetables.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The smell coming from the abandoned building was absolutely ____ and made him gag.