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terrible

adj
/ˈtɛɹəbəl/CA/ˈteɹəbəl//ˈtɝ.bəl/US

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 terribilisbor. 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.

  1. derived from terribilis — “frightful”
  2. derived from terrible
  3. inherited from terrible

Definitions

  1. Dreadful

    Dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome

    • The witch laid a terrible curse on him.

  2. 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.

  3. Intense

    Intense; extreme in degree or extent.

    • He paid a terrible price for his life of drinking.
  4. ›+ 4 more definitions

    1. Very unpleasant

      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.

    2. Very bad

      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.

    3. 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.
      • Lord Byron! A terrible man for falling in love, God bless him!

    4. In a terrible way

      In a terrible way; to a terrible extent; terribly; awfully.

      • ‘Oh, terrible bad, sir, terrible deep the snow is,’ said the hedgehog.

The neighborhood

Derived

a mind is a terrible thing to waste, something terrible, terrible infant, terrible lizard, Terrible Towel, terrible twos, terribly

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at terrible. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01terrible02terror03intense04strong05power06coerce07intimidation08fearful09frightening

A definitional loop anchored at terrible. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at terrible

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA