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Outrageous vs Horrendous - What's the difference?

outrageous | horrendous |

As adjectives the difference between outrageous and horrendous

is that outrageous is cruel, violating morality or decency; provoking indignation or affront while horrendous is extremely bad; awful; terrible.

outrageous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Cruel, violating morality or decency; provoking indignation or affront.
  • * c. 1601 , (William Shakespeare), (Hamlet) , First Folio 1623:
  • To be, or not to be, that is the Question: / Whether 'tis Nobler in the minde to suffer / The Slings and Arrowes of outragious Fortune, / Or to take Armes against a Sea of troubles, / And by opposing end them [...].
  • * 2011 , Paul Wilson, (The Guardian) , 19 Oct 2011:
  • The Irish-French rugby union whistler Alain Rolland was roundly condemned for his outrageous decision that lifting a player into the air then turning him over so he falls on his head or neck amounted to dangerous play.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.4:
  • For els my feeble vessell, crazd and crackt / Through thy strong buffets and outrageous blowes, / Cannot endure, but needes it must be wrackt [...].
  • Transgressing reasonable limits; extravagant, immoderate.
  • * 2004 , David Smith, , 19 Dec 2004:
  • Audience members praised McKellen, best known for Shakespearean roles and as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, for his show-stealing turn as Twankey in a series of outrageous glitzy dresses.
  • Shocking; exceeding conventional behaviour; provocative.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=1 , passage=She mixed furniture with the same fatal profligacy as she mixed drinks, and this outrageous contact between things which were intended by Nature to be kept poles apart gave her an inexpressible thrill.}}
  • * 2001 , Imogen Tilden, (The Guardian) , 8 Dec 2001:
  • *:"It's something I really am quite nervous about," he admits, before adding, with relish: "You have to be a bit outrageous and challenging sometimes."
  • horrendous

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Extremely bad; awful; terrible.
  • * There was horrendous carnage at the scene of the plane crash.
  • * My journey to work this morning was horrendous !
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03
  • , author=William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter , title=The British Longitude Act Reconsidered , volume=100, issue=2, page=87 , magazine= citation , passage=But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea. Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat.}}

    Synonyms

    * awful, horrific, terrible, dreadful