horrible

Etymology

First attested in Middle English (alternately as horrible and orrible) in 1303: from Old French horrible, orrible, orible, from Latin horribilis, from horr(ēre) (“tremble”) + -ibilis (“-ible”).

noun

1. A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
   A lot of the possible horribles conjured up by the people objecting to this convention ignore the plain language of this treaty. 1982, United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, The Genocide Convention: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate
   The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles. 1991, Alastair Scott, Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey
   I'm trying to convince him that the criminal behavior that's going on at the White House has to end. And I give him one horrible after the next. I just keep raising them. He sort of swats them away. January 21 2000, John Dean, CNN interview
   Many scholars have demonstrated these horribles and contemplated significant limitations on class actions. 2001, Neil K. Komesar, Law's Limits: The Rule of Law and the Supply and Demand of Rights
2. A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.

adj

1. Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
   Strangers fainted dead away at the sight of the Laughing Man's horrible face. Acquaintances shunned him. The New Yorker, March 19 1949, J. D. Salinger, The Laughing Man
   Some of us have had plastic surgery on our faces and fingerprints. Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end. 1953, Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
   Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house. 1933, James Thurber, My Life and Hard Times
2. Tremendously bad.
   Having now absorbed all or parts of 750 responses to my complaints about Transformers, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that most of those writing agree with me that it is a horrible movie. 2010, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert's Movie Yearbook 2010, page 599