1
: offensive to the senses and especially to sight : exceedingly ugly
hideous furniture
The dress looked hideous on her.
2
: morally offensive : shocking
a hideous crime
Synonyms
Examples of hideous in a Sentence
The room was filled with hideous furniture.
the hideous way in which she treated her maid after she discovered her ring was missing
Recent Examples on the Web
At hideous cost to themselves—measured in tens of thousands of killed, wounded, or missing men a month—Russian armies are advancing slowly.
—
Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 10 Apr. 2024
Countless civilians are caught in the crossfire: Artillery bombardments and airstrikes pounded urban areas, while warring militias pursued tribal vendettas and carried out hideous ethnic massacres.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2024
On Monday, Turkey woke up to a set of political realities dramatically different from those less than a year ago, when Erdogan secured reelection despite a tanking economy and the hideous impact of an earthquake that devastated the country’s south.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2024
For years, pressures have been mounting from extractive industries in Namibia and Angola, still recovering from a hideous 27-year civil war, which threaten the lakes and rivers that supply the Okavango with water.
—Alex Postman, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Apr. 2024
But some on Alderney were heartened that weeds were beginning to cover the hideous reminders of the occupation.
—Rebecca Panovka, Harper's Magazine, 9 Feb. 2024
The musician’s fate, when the filmmakers finally reveal it, is imbued with slow-rolling horror and a hideous sense of irony — a warning to the present as well as a glimpse of a shameful past.
—Ty Burr, Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2024
The Emperor’s planet, for example, is on Earth an Edenic cemetery in Italy; the hideous Harkonnens live in cold overdevelopment like rats in a sewer.
—Charlie Hobbs, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Mar. 2024
Cronenberg’s genius consists in his rare ability to see that elevation can attend disgust, and almost all his movies raise the possibility that a hideous ordeal might double as a reprieve from banality.
—Becca Rothfeld, The New Yorker, 17 Feb. 2024
Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 10 Apr. 2024
Countless civilians are caught in the crossfire: Artillery bombardments and airstrikes pounded urban areas, while warring militias pursued tribal vendettas and carried out hideous ethnic massacres.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 1 Apr. 2024
On Monday, Turkey woke up to a set of political realities dramatically different from those less than a year ago, when Erdogan secured reelection despite a tanking economy and the hideous impact of an earthquake that devastated the country’s south.
—Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2024
For years, pressures have been mounting from extractive industries in Namibia and Angola, still recovering from a hideous 27-year civil war, which threaten the lakes and rivers that supply the Okavango with water.
—Alex Postman, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Apr. 2024
But some on Alderney were heartened that weeds were beginning to cover the hideous reminders of the occupation.
—Rebecca Panovka, Harper's Magazine, 9 Feb. 2024
The musician’s fate, when the filmmakers finally reveal it, is imbued with slow-rolling horror and a hideous sense of irony — a warning to the present as well as a glimpse of a shameful past.
—Ty Burr, Washington Post, 6 Mar. 2024
The Emperor’s planet, for example, is on Earth an Edenic cemetery in Italy; the hideous Harkonnens live in cold overdevelopment like rats in a sewer.
—Charlie Hobbs, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Mar. 2024
Cronenberg’s genius consists in his rare ability to see that elevation can attend disgust, and almost all his movies raise the possibility that a hideous ordeal might double as a reprieve from banality.
—Becca Rothfeld, The New Yorker, 17 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hideous.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Hideous.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hideous. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
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