NOISOME

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does noisome mean? 

• NOISOME (adjective)
  The adjective NOISOME has 2 senses:

1. causing or able to cause nausea

2. offensively malodorous

  Familiarity information: NOISOME used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NOISOME (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Causing or able to cause nausea

Synonyms:

loathsome; nauseating; nauseous; noisome; offensive; queasy; sickening; vile

Context example:

a sickening stench

Similar:

unwholesome (detrimental to physical or moral well-being)

Derivation:

noisomeness (the quality of being noxious)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Offensively malodorous

Synonyms:

fetid; foetid; foul; foul-smelling; funky; ill-scented; noisome; smelly; stinking

Context example:

the kitchen smelled really funky

Similar:

ill-smelling; malodorous; malodourous; stinky; unpleasant-smelling (having an unpleasant smell)

Derivation:

noisomeness (the quality of being noxious)

 Context examples 

His blind and aged father and his gentle sister lay in a noisome dungeon while he enjoyed the free air and the society of her whom he loved.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Water-swept and aslant, it was preferable to the noisome, rat-haunted dungeons which served as cabins.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

On this festival, the servants drive a herd of Yahoos into the field, laden with hay, and oats, and milk, for a repast to the Houyhnhnms; after which, these brutes are immediately driven back again, for fear of being noisome to the assembly.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

It is no pleasant picture I can conjure up of myself, Humphrey Van Weyden, in that noisome ship’s galley, crouched in a corner over my task, my face raised to the face of the creature about to strike me, my lips lifted and snarling like a dog’s, my eyes gleaming with fear and helplessness and the courage that comes of fear and helplessness.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

One of the members for the affirmative offered several arguments of great strength and weight, alleging, that as the Yahoos were the most filthy, noisome, and deformed animals which nature ever produced, so they were the most restive and indocible, mischievous and malicious; they would privately suck the teats of the Houyhnhnms’ cows, kill and devour their cats, trample down their oats and grass, if they were not continually watched, and commit a thousand other extravagancies.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)