morbid

mor·bid

adj \ˈmȯr-bəd\

Definition of MORBID

1

a : of, relating to, or characteristic of disease <morbid anatomy> b : affected with or induced by disease <a morbid condition> c : productive of disease <morbid substances>

2

: abnormally susceptible to or characterized by gloomy or unwholesome feelings

3

: grisly, gruesome <morbid details> <morbid curiosity>

— mor·bid·ly adverb

— mor·bid·ness noun

Examples of MORBID

1. She has a morbid interest in funerals.
2. He has a morbid sense of humor.
3. a morbid fascination with death
4. wanting to learn about a celebrity's downfall out of morbid curiosity
5. suffering from a morbid condition
6. The child has a morbid fear of snakes.
7. Some of the material has been disclosed before, but it is wonderful to have the quotations from President Nixon and his aides gathered here in all their morbid splendor. —Anthony Lewis, New York Review of Books, 7 Apr. 2005
8. Danger can be sexy, but morbid proselytizing is a real buzzkill. —Emily Gordon, Nation, 5 May 1997
9. When I was a kid, I harbored a morbid fear of feathers. Feathers. Not a single feather or a few loose feathers, like the ones I'd stick in my naps to play Indian, but feathers in a bunch, … —John Edgar Wideman, New Yorker, 1 Aug. 1994
10. She suffered from a morbid streak which in all the life of the family reached out on occasions—the worst occasions—and touched us, clung around us, making it worse for her; her unbearable moments could find nowhere to go. —Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings, 1983

Origin of MORBID

Latin morbidus diseased, from morbus disease

First Known Use: 1656

Related to MORBID

Synonyms: black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dire, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, gloomy, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, solemn, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched

Antonyms: bright, cheerful, cheering, cheery, comforting, cordial, festive, friendly, gay, heartwarming, sunshiny

Related Words: blue, dejected, depressed, despondent, disconsolate, down, droopy, hangdog, inconsolable, low, melancholic, melancholy, mirthless, sad, unhappy, woebegone, woeful; dim, discomfiting, discouraging, disheartening, dismaying, dispiriting, distressful, distressing, upsetting; desperate, hopeless, pessimistic; lamentable, mournful, plaintive, sorrowful; colorless, drab, dull; dour, grim, lowering (also louring), lowery (also loury), menacing, negative, oppressive, threatening

Near Antonyms: blithe, blithesome, buoyant, gay, jocund, jolly, joyful, joyous, merry, mirthful; encouraging, hopeful, optimistic; lighthearted, lightsome

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Other Anatomy Terms

bilateral symmetry, carotid, cartilage, dorsal, entrails, prehensile, renal, solar plexus, supine, thoracic, ventral