Adjective

(en-adj)

repellently frightful and shocking; horrific or ghastly

* 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 6

In the middle of the floor lay a skeleton, every vestige of flesh gone from the bones to which still clung the mildewed and moldered remnants of what had once been clothing. Upon the bed lay a similar gruesome thing, but smaller, while in a tiny cradle near-by was a third, a wee mite of a skeleton.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=May 04 , title=Bin Laden was unarmed when shot dead citation , passage=Jay Carney said that the US was considering whether to release photos of bin Laden after he was killed on Sunday but that the photos were gruesome and could be inflammatory.}}

Adjective

(en adjective)

Worthy of, or causing, abhorrence, as a thing of evil omen; odious in the utmost degree; very hateful; detestable; loathsome; execrable.

* But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable , and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. — Revelation 21:8 (KJV)

(obsolete) Excessive, large (used as an intensifier).

* (and other bibliographic particulars) (George Perkins Marsh)

Note:''''' (Juliana Berners) ... informs us that in her time (15th century), "' abomynable syght of monkes" was elegant English for "a large company of friars".

Very bad or inferior.

Disagreeable or unpleasant.