terrible
Part of speech: adj
Morphological type: derivation
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.
Inflected forms:
form: terribler
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: more terrible
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: terriblest
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: most terrible
pos: adj
tags: superlative
Senses:
gloss: Dreadful; causing terror, alarm and fear; awesome
pos: adj
examples: 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.
gloss: Formidable, powerful.
pos: adj
examples: […]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.
gloss: Intense; extreme in degree or extent.
pos: adj
examples: 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?
gloss: Very unpleasant; disagreeable.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
gloss: Very bad; lousy.
pos: adj
examples: 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.
gloss: Prone to a particular temptation.
pos: adj
tags: Ireland
especially
examples: 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!
Antonyms: excellent
Related words: terrific
terrify
terrifying
terror
terrorist
terrorize
Derived words: a mind is a terrible thing to waste
amphoterrible
nonterrible
something terrible
terribad
terrible infant
terrible lizard
terribleness
Terrible Towel
terrible twos
terribly
unterrible
Translations: