APPALLING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does appalling mean? 

• APPALLING (noun)
  The noun APPALLING has 1 sense:

1. an experience that appalls

  Familiarity information: APPALLING used as a noun is very rare.

• APPALLING (adjective)
  The adjective APPALLING has 1 sense:

1. causing consternation

  Familiarity information: APPALLING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• APPALLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An experience that appalls

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Context example:

is it better to view the appalling or merely hear of it?

Hypernyms ("appalling" is a kind of...):

experience (an event as apprehended)

• APPALLING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Causing consternation

Synonyms:

appalling; dismaying

Context example:

appalling conditions

Similar:

alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)

 Context examples 

Indeed, who would credit that Justine Moritz, who was so amiable, and fond of all the family, could suddenly become so capable of so frightful, so appalling a crime?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

She turned the page and her head at the same time, pointing to the sum which would have been bad enough without the fifty, but which was appalling to her with that added.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

There is my explanation; it is sad enough, Poole, ay, and appalling to consider; but it is plain and natural, hangs well together, and delivers us from all exorbitant alarms.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

She longed to add, “But of his principles I have”; but her heart sunk under the appalling prospect of discussion, explanation, and probably non-conviction.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I beg that you will bring me a little lavender water, landlord, for the smell of this crowd is appalling.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The poor fellow is overwhelmed in a misery that is appalling to see.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The callousness of these men, to whom industrial organization gave control of the lives of other men, was appalling.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Even when the lessons are done, the worst is yet to happen, in the shape of an appalling sum.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Here then I was in the third storey, fastened into one of its mystic cells; night around me; a pale and bloody spectacle under my eyes and hands; a murderess hardly separated from me by a single door: yes—that was appalling—the rest I could bear; but I shuddered at the thought of Grace Poole bursting out upon me.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Never did I behold a vision so horrible as his face, of such loathsome yet appalling hideousness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)