horror

Noun

horror (countable and uncountable, plural horrors)

1. An intense distressing emotion of fear or repugnance.
   • Their swarthy Hosts wou'd darken all our Plains, / Doubling the native Horror of the War, / And making Death more grim.1712, Joseph Addison, Cato: A tragedy, published 1750, page 44
2. Something horrible; that which excites horror.
   • I saw many horrors during the war.
   • The Home Magazine for July (Binghamton and New York) contains ‘The Patriots' War Chant,’ a poem by Douglas Malloch; ‘The Story of the War,’ by Theodore Waters; ‘A Horseman in the Sky,’ by Ambrose Bierce, with a portrait of Mr. Bierce, whose tales of horror are horrible of themselves, not as war is...1898 July 3, Philadelphia Inquirer, page 22
3. Intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence.
   • “Mrs. Yule's chagrin and horror at what she called her son's base ingratitude knew no bounds ; at first it was even thought that she would never get over it. […] ”1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Tragedy in Dartmoor Terrace”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition...
4. (uncountable) A genre of fiction designed to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense.
   • Those who enjoy horror, stories overflowing with blood and black mystery, will be grateful to Richard Marsh for writing ‘The Beetle.’1917 February 11, New York Times, Book reviews, page 52
   • A well-received Johnny Fuller R & B horror called "Haunted House."1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 156
   1. (countable) An individual work in this genre.
5. (colloquial, countable) A nasty or ill-behaved person; a rascal or terror.
   • The neighbour's kids are a pack of little horrors!
6. (informal) An intense anxiety or a nervous depression; often the horrors.
7. (in plural, informal) Delirium tremens.
   • `My belief is that he had the horrors without knowin' it.'1930, Norman Lindsay, Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, page 53