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terrible, a. (n.)|ˈtɛrɪb(ə)l|
Also 5–6 terry-, 6 terra-, terre-, tirre.
[a. F. terrible (12th c.), ad. L. terribilis, f. terrēre to frighten: see -ble.]
A. adj.
1. Exciting or fitted to excite terror; such as to inspire great fear or dread; frightful, dreadful.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 142 Ther roos up oon out of his sepulture, Terrible of face. c1450Holland Howlat 620 That terrible felloun my spreit affrayd. 1508Dunbar Tua Mariit Wemen 266 With a terrebill tail..stangand as edderis. 1565in Sir J. Picton L'pool Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 108 The marvelloussest and terriblest storm. 1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. xxvii. (1627) 277 In very many schooles..the whole gouernment maintained only by continuall and terrible whipping. 1721Strype Eccl. Mem. II. i. v. 36 Punished..to the terrible example of all others. 1791Cowper Iliad iv. 515 The Greeks..With martial order terrible advanced. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. vii. 50 A foe more terrible than the avalanches. 1870Swinburne Ess. & Stud. (1875) 311 Superb instances of terrible beauty undeformed by horrible detail.
2. a. Exciting some feeling akin to dread or awe; very violent, severe, painful, or bad; hence colloq. as a mere intensive: Very great, excessive. (Cf. the similar use of tremendous, awful, frightful, etc.)
1596Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.) I. 128 Thair constant amitie..to thair nychtbouris the Britanis brocht a terrabill feir. 1628Earle Microcosm. (Arb.) 49 He is a terrible fastner on a piece of Beefe. 1670Marvell Corr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 315 The terrible Bill against Conventicles. 1737L. Clarke Hist. Bible iv. (1740) 227 The terriblest blow of all. 1779Mirror No. 41 ⁋6, I was told it was a great way off, and over terrible mountains. 1829Lytton Devereux i. ii, He was a terrible caviller at the holy mysteries of Catholicism. 1844Dickens Mart. Chuz. xi, She's a terrible one to laugh. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxiv. (1856) 301 Even you, terrible worker as you are, could not study in the Arctic regions. 1884Queen Victoria Let. 27 Feb. in R. Fulford Beloved Mama (1981) 161 The amount of writing is as they say at Balmoral ‘just terrible’. 1924‘K. Mansfield’ in Collier's 5 Jan. 37/2 She leaned against him and looked into his eyes. ‘Hasn't it been terrible, all to-day?’ said Edna. ‘I knew what was the matter.’ 1939G. B. Shaw In Good King Charles's Golden Days i. 7 Just as I have my terrible weakness for figures Mr. Rowley has a very similar weakness for women. 1945[see show v. 25 d]. 1965E. J. Howard After Julius vii. 100 Her mother had made his life so terrible—not worth living.
b. Applied to a person who behaves in a shocking or outrageous manner; terrible child or terrible infant = enfant terrible; terrible twins, applied joc. to a pair of associates whose behaviour is troublesome or outrageous.
1859C. Reade Love me Little, love me Long I. i. 6 Poor Reginald was not analytical,..like certain pedanticules, who figure in story as children. He was a terrible infant, not a horrible one. 1926A. Huxley Two or Three Graces 25 Peddley was not the man to be put out by even the most terrible of terrible infants. 1958B. Behan Borstal Boy i. 77 When I was a child, my father used to get the News of the World... I used to wonder..why my mother said, half-laughing in spite of herself, that he was a terrible man, because it was banned at home. 1964in Hamblett & Deverson Generation X 47, I used to be terrible. I coudn't stand my girls looking at other men, but I'm different now. 1965M. Spark Mandelbaum Gate vii. 207 An English female voice..said, ‘Oh, look at that terrible man—,’ obviously referring to Freddy. 1970C. Hampton Philanthropist v. 69 All the men I fall in love with turn out to be such terrible people. 1976Evening Advertiser (Swindon) 31 Dec. 8/1 The ‘Terrible Twins’ of yesteryear, Mr Jack Jones, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers, and Mr. Hugh Scanlon, president of the Engineering Workers, have mellowed. 1978Cadogan & Craig Women & Children First x. 222 Violet Elizabeth, the terrible child of the William books. 1982Financial Times 10 May 10/3 Since the ‘terrible twins’, as they were dubbed, were both powerful figures, and did not always see eye-to-eye on matters, this rivalry was reflected down the line.
c. As a hyperbolic term of depreciation: of shockingly poor performance or quality; incompetent; defective.
1925F. Scott Fitzgerald Great Gatsby ii. 35, I..read a chapter of ‘Simon Called Peter’—either it was terrible stuff or the whiskey distorted things, because it didn't make any sense to me. 1946‘E. Crispin’ Moving Toyshop i. 8 Three books..about me (all terrible, but never mind that). 1948C. Fry Thor with Angels 20 As far as he can remember, Though he has a terrible memory for names, His name is Merlin. 1964in Hamblett & Deverson Generation X 88 He was hopeless—you follow me?—terrible in bed. That's why his missus left him..to himself. 1972[see line n.2 1 e]. 1979‘J. le Carré’ Smiley's People (1980) xxi. 257 Grígoríeva got herself a driving license two months ago... She's a terrible driver, George. And I mean terrible. 1983R. Rendell Speaker of Mandarin xvi. 190, I got this Hollywood offer and I went to Hollywood and made that terrible Mind over Matter.
3. quasi-adv. = terribly. (Esp. in sense 2.) Now chiefly dial. and U.S.
c1489Caxton Sonnes of Aymon i. 42 The duke..spored hys horse terryble. 1606S. Gardiner Bk. Angling 13 The world is a Sea..terrible salt thorough sin. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 5 The weather being terrible hot. 1796Jane Austen Lett. (1884) I. 126 We were so terrible good as to take James in our carriage. 1877Freeman in Life & Lett. (1895) II. viii. 158, I was in a terrible bad way. 1901M. Franklin My Brilliant Career (1966) xxxi. 197 The old yeos [ewes] looks terrible skinny. 1926E. O'Neill Great God Brown Prol. 16 My mother used to believe the full of the moon was the time to sow. She was terrible old-fashioned. 1959L. Hughes Sel. Poems 144 He mistreated her terrible.
4. Comb., as terrible-browed, terrible-looking.
1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. liv, He seemed to her a terrible-browed angel. 1906Westm. Gaz. 21 Apr. 4/1 There was only one burglar, by no means a terrible-looking fellow.
B. n. A terrible thing or being; something that causes terror or dread. Usually in pl.
a1619M. Fotherby Atheom. i. xii. §5 (1622) 133 Which maketh the cogitation of death, of all other terribles, to seeme the most terrible. 1682J. Flavel Fear ii. 9 Job calls it the king of terrors..or the most terrible of terribles. 1850J. Struthers Poet. Wks. II. 149 One has, between Grecian and Gothic story, generated a new race of terribles.
▸ terrible twos n. colloq. (with the or possessive adjective) the period in a child's social development (typically around the age of two years) associated with defiant or challenging behaviour.
1950(title of film) The *terrible twos and the trusting threes. [Produced for the Department of National Health and Welfare, Canada]. 1988R. Hillis Blue in G. Ursell Sky High 42 Dad thought of Mom, pregnant again, frantic with a boy in his terrible twos. 2002Here's Health Mar. 66/1 Ask any parent about ‘the terrible twos’ and they'll think of tantrums and an uncontrollable toddler. |