From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishhorrendoushor‧ren‧dous /hɒˈrendəs, hə- $ hɑː-, hɔː-/ ●○○ adjective 1 FRIGHTENEDfrightening and terrible SYN horrific a horrendous experience She suffered horrendous injuries.► see thesaurus at bad2 informalBAD extremely unreasonable or unpleasant horrendous debts The traffic was horrendous. —horrendously adverb
Examples from the Corpus
horrendous• Traffic in the downtown Boston area is horrendous.• It would have been a nightmare, it would have been horrendous.• After all, the newspapers are brimming with reports of horrendous attacks on women, so the risk must be considerable.• She is still recovering from a horrendous car accident.• This is so horrendous, it bears no description.• horrendous medical costs• In the medical schools' defense, both operate under the horrendous restrictions of a perpetual organ shortage.• The first was hacking round Crieff, eventually posting a horrendous score of 112, with Roy Nicolson as his playing partner.• Jose Lima is coming off a horrendous season.• Nothing in the three villagers' long but sheltered past could have prepared them for the horrendous sight that met their eyes.• It was a horrendous storm.• Troops ordinarily camped out during the winter months, recognizing that battles did not need the additional adversary of horrendous weather.• Pit bull dogs can inflict horrendous wounds on people.Origin horrendous (1600-1700) Latin horrendus, from horrere; → HORROR 