Noun

(-)

A fearful state; a state of hesitation or concern.

I decided, with considerable trepidation , to let him drive my car without me.

* 1929 , , Chapter VII, Section vi

She opened the drawing-room door in trepidation . Would she find Esther drowned with her head in the goldfish bowl, or hanged from the chandelier by her stay-lace?

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=December 10 , author=Marc Higginson , title=Bolton 1 - 2 Aston Villa , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The Midlanders will hope the victory will kickstart a campaign that looked to have hit the buffers, but the sense of trepidation enveloping the Reebok Stadium heading into the new year underlines the seriousness of the predicament facing Owen Coyle's men.}}

An involuntary trembling, sometimes an effect of paralysis, but usually caused by terror or fear; quaking; quivering.

(astronomy, obsolete) A libration of the starry sphere in the Ptolemaic system; a motion ascribed to the firmament, to account for certain small changes in the position of the ecliptic and of the stars.

Noun

(en noun)

An intense painful emotion of fear or repugnance.

An intense dislike or aversion; an abhorrence.

* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=

, title= , chapter=1 citation , passage=“Mrs. Yule's chagrin and horror at what she called her son's base ingratitude knew no bounds ; at first it was even thought that she would never get over it. […]”}}

A genre of fiction, meant to evoke a feeling of fear and suspense.

* {{quote-news

, year = 1898 , date = July 3 , newspaper = Philadelphia Inquirer , page = 22 , passage = The Home Magazine for July (Binghamton and New York) contains ‘The Patriots' War Chant,’ a poem by Douglas Malloch; ‘The Story of the War,’ by Theodore Waters; ‘A Horseman in the Sky,’ by Ambrose Bierce, with a portrait of Mr. Bierce, whose tales of horror are horrible of themselves, not as war is horrible; ‘A Yankee Hero,’ by W. L. Calver; ‘The Warfare of the Future,’ by Louis Seemuller; ‘Florence Nightingale,’ by Susan E. Dickenson, with two rare portraits, etc. }}

* {{quote-news

, year = 1917 , date = February 11 , newspaper = New York Times , section = Book reviews , page = 52 , passage = Those who enjoy horror , stories overflowing with blood and black mystery, will be grateful to Richard Marsh for writing ‘The Beetle.’ }}

* 1947 , re-release poster, tagline:

A Nightmare of Horror !

(informal) An intense anxiety or a nervous depression; this sense can also be spoken or written as the horrors .