abysmal

English

Etymology

abysm +‎ -al

Pronunciation

Adjective

abysmal (comparative more abysmal, superlative most abysmal)

  1. (now rare) Pertaining to, or resembling an abyss. [First attested in the mid 17th century.][1]
    Synonyms: unending, profound, fathomless, immeasurable
    • (Can we date this quote?), Carlyle, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      Geology gives one the same abysmal extent of time that astronomy does of space. [First attested in the early 19th century.][1]
  2. (figuratively) extremely bad; terrible.
    • 2012 June 9, Owen Phillips, “Euro 2012: Netherlands 0-1 Denmark”, in BBC Sport‎:
      Robben curled an effort against the foot of the post from the edge of the box after being gifted the ball by an abysmal clearance from keeper Stephan Andersen.

Usage notes

  • Nouns to which "abysmal" is often applied: ignorance, record, performance, poverty, conditions, quality, perplexity, result, service, and failure.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

References

  1. 1 2 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], →ISBN), page 11

Further reading

  • abysmal in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • abysmal in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

Anagrams

Portuguese

Adjective

abysmal (plural abysmaes, comparable)

  1. Obsolete spelling of abismal
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.