Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use macabre in a sentence

15 example sentences · adjective

Macabre means representing or personifying death. Example: “Dahmer once again gave in to his macabre desires.”

Examples of macabre by meaning

adjectiveObsessed with death or the gruesome.

  • Indeed, in the 1854 draft of Tristan he planned to have Parzival visit the dying knight, and both operas display the same macabre obsession with bloody gore and festering wounds.1993, Theodore Ziolkowski, “Wagner's Parsifal between Mystery and Mummery”, in Werner Sollors, editor, The Return of Thematic Criticism...

adjectiveGhastly, shocking, terrifying.

  • The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from every-day life.1927, H. P. Lovecraft, “Introduction”, in Supernatural Horror in Literature, published 1938

More sentences with macabre

  • Dahmer once again gave in to his macabre desires.From the entry give in
  • McCarthy’s fiction took a dark view of the human condition and was often macabre.2023 June 13, Dwight Garner, “Cormac McCarthy, Novelist of a Darker America, Is Dead at 89”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry human condition
  • In Eva Strella’s wretched domain, the sight of Pigsloff’s macabre remains struck Ganoate’s heart.2015, Brad A. Braddock, Jason Pacy, “The Black Tree in the South Forest”, in The Village of Eben Hollow, United States: Black Rose…. From the entry dungeon master
  • The sight of deep-pitted orbs and gumless mouths with protruding crooked teeth was macabre and gruesome.2011, Martina Nicolls, The Sudan Curse, page 15. From the entry gumless
  • The Bwiti then is supposed to reveal itself under diverse and macabre forms.2009, Marlene Dobkin de Rios, The Psychedelic Journey of Marlene Dobkin de Rios, page 85. From the entry Bwiti
  • I've said it before: This is "irritainment" - a macabre mix of irritation and entertainment.1998 September 26, Lewis W. Diuguid, “Changing channels on scandal”, in The Kansas City Star. From the entry irritainment
  • “It is . . . a tad macabre, don’t you think?” “Not at all.1996 December, Walter Satterthwait, “The Cassoulet”, in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, volume 41, number 12, Dell Magazines, →ISSN…. From the entry sanguette
  • Perhaps most astonishing of all, however, was the supermarketlike display of this macabre bazaar.1986, Dominique Lapierre, The City of Joy. From the entry supermarketlike
  • The macabre multimurders and the trial that convicted Manson commanded national media attention.1980, William Aiken, Hugh LaFollette, Whose child?, page 44. From the entry multimurder
  • The art conservationist’s term “inherent vice” describes both the instability of the images and the general sense of the macabre.2014 October 23, Roberta Smith, “Art & Design: Genieve Figgis: ‘Good Morning, Midnight’”, in New York Times, retrieved 17 Jul 2015. From the entry inherent vice
  • For the first time since beginning his macabre descent into the wayback, Eddie had no compulsion to follow his past.2009, Patrick Millikin, Phoenix Noir, →ISBN. From the entry wayback
  • My point is that there is no grand single line, everything is in bits, & often absolutely dead, & always very unheimlich, almost macabre.1936, Isiah Berlin, letter, 3 Jun 1936. From the entry unheimlich
  • Wells' stark short story "The Cone" tells of a man's macabre revenge worked out in the clangour of a great steel works and railway lines and sidings.1957 May, Neil Caplan, “Railways in English Fiction”, in Railway Magazine, page 349. From the entry clangour

Meaning of macabre

  1. adjective Representing or personifying death.
  2. adjective Obsessed with death or the gruesome.
  3. adjective Ghastly, shocking, terrifying.

Full definition of macabre

Questions about macabre in a sentence

How do you use macabre in a sentence?
Macabre is used as an adjective. For example: “Dahmer once again gave in to his macabre desires.”
What is a short sentence with macabre?
“Dahmer once again gave in to his macabre desires.”
What does macabre mean?
Macabre means representing or personifying death.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: macabre (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use macabre in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/macabre. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.