Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Atrocious

A·tro′cious (ȧ·trō′shŭs), a. [L. atrox, atrocis, cruel, fierce: cf. F. atroce.] 1. Extremely heinous; full of enormous wickedness; as, atrocious quilt or deeds.

2. Characterized by, or expressing, great atrocity.

Revelations . . . so atrocious that nothing in history approaches them. De Quincey.

3. Very grievous or violent; terrible; as, atrocious distempers. [Obs.] Cheyne.

Syn. — Atrocious, Flagitious, Flagrant. Flagitious points to an act as grossly wicked and vile; as, a flagitious proposal. Flagrant marks the vivid impression made upon the mind by something strikingly wrong or erroneous; as, a flagrant misrepresentation; a flagrant violation of duty. Atrocious represents the act as springing from a violent and savage spirit. If Lord Chatham, instead of saying "the atrocious crime of being a young man," had used either of the other two words, his irony would have lost all its point, in his celebrated reply to Sir Robert Walpole, as reported by Dr. Johnson.

— A·tro′cious·ly, adv. — A·tro′cious·ness, n.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.