loathsome

Definition

Highly offensive; abominable, sickening.

Etymology

From Middle English lothsum, from Old English *lāþsum, from Proto-West Germanic *laiþasam, equivalent to loath + -some. Cognate with Middle Low German lêtsam (“arduous”), German leidsam (“sad, sorry”).

Example Sentences

• "Come on my Lords the better foot before, / Straight vvill I bring you to the lothſome pit, / VVhere I eſpied the Panther faſt a ſleepe."
• "That grave but yesterday received one who was to have been his bride—his betrothed from childhood for whose sake he had been to far lands and gathered much wealth, but who had pined in his absence and died. He flung himself on the loathsome place, and the night-wind bore around the ravings of his despair."
• "Lying on the floor was a dead man, in evening dress, with a knife in his heart. He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognized who it was."