atrocious : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: atrocious	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for atrocious
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
atrocious adj shockingly brutal or cruel; "murder is an atrocious crime"; "a grievous offense against morality"; "a grievous crime"; "no excess was too monstrous for them to commit" Synonym(s): atrocious, flagitious, grievous, monstrous exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste"; "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room" Synonym(s): atrocious, abominable, awful, dreadful, painful, terrible, unspeakable provoking horror; "an atrocious automobile accident"; "a frightful crime of decapitation"; "an alarming, even horrifying, picture"; "war is beyond all words horrible"- Winston Churchill; "an ugly wound" Synonym(s): atrocious, frightful, horrifying, horrible, ugly
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Atrocious \Atro"cious\, a. [L. atrox, atrocis, cruel, fierce: cf. F. atroce.] 1. Extremely heinous; full of enormous wickedness; as, atrocious* quilt or deeds. 2. Characterized by, or expressing, great atrocity. Revelations . . . so atrocious that nothing in history approaches them. --De Quincey. 3. Very grievous or violent; terrible; as, atrocious distempers. [Obs.] --Cheyne. Syn: {Atrocious}, {Flagitious}, {Flagrant}. Usage: Flagitious points to an act as grossly wicked and vile; as, a flagitious proposal. Flagrant marks the vivid impression made upon the mind by something strikingly wrong or erroneous; as, a flagrant misrepresentation; a flagrant violation of duty. Atrocious represents the act as springing from a violent and savage spirit. If Lord Chatham, instead of saying [bd]the atrocious crime of being a young man,[b8] had used either of the other two words, his irony would have lost all its point, in his celebrated reply to Sir Robert Walpole, as reported by Dr. Johnson. -- {Atro"ciously}, adv. -- {Atro"ciousness}, n.