heinous

  • 1heinous — hei·nous / hā nəs/ adj: enormously and shockingly evil a heinous crime hei·nous·ly adv hei·nous·ness n Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996 …

    Law dictionary

  • 2Heinous — Hei nous (h[=a] n[u^]s), a. [OF. ha[ i]nos hateful, F. haineux, fr. OF. ha[ i]ne hate, F. haine, fr. ha[ i]r to hate; of German origin. See {Hate}.] Hateful; hatefully bad; flagrant; odious; atrocious; giving great offense; applied to deeds or to …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 3heinous — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ utterly abhorrent and wicked: a heinous crime. DERIVATIVES heinously adverb heinousness noun. ORIGIN Old French haineus, from hair to hate …

    English terms dictionary

  • 4heinous — [hā′nəs] adj. [ME hainous < OFr hainös (Fr haineux) < haine, hatred < hair, to hate < Frank * hatjan, akin to Ger hassen, HATE] outrageously evil or wicked; abominable [a heinous crime] SYN. OUTRAGEOUS heinously adv. heinousness n …

    English World dictionary

  • 5heinous — late 14c., from O.Fr. hainos inconvenient, awkward; hateful, unpleasant; odious (Mod.Fr. haineux), from haine hatred, from hair to hate, from Frankish *hatjan (Cf. O.S. haton, O.E. hatian to hate; see HATE (Cf. hate) (v.)). Related: Heinously …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 6heinous — *outrageous, atrocious, monstrous Analogous words: *flagrant, glaring, gross, rank: nefarious, flagitious, infamous (see vicious) Antonyms: venial Contrasted words: trivial, trifling, *petty, paltry …

    New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • 7heinous — meaning ‘extremely wicked’, is pronounced hee nǝs …

    Modern English usage

  • 8heinous — [adj] horrifying, monstrous abhorrent, abominable, accursed, atrocious, awful, bad, beastly, crying, cursed, evil, execrable, flagitious, flagrant, frightful, godawful*, grave, gross*, hateful, hideous, horrendous, infamous, iniquitous, nefarious …

    New thesaurus

  • 9heinous — [[t]he͟ɪnəs[/t]] ADJ GRADED: usu ADJ n If you describe something such as a crime as heinous, you mean that it is extremely evil or horrible. [FORMAL] Her life has been permanently blighted by his heinous crime... They are capable of the most… …

    English dictionary

  • 10heinous — hei|nous [ˈheınəs] adj formal [Date: 1300 1400; : Old French; Origin: haineus, from haine hate ] 1.) very shocking and immoral ▪ a heinous crime 2.) AmE spoken informal extremely bad ▪ The food in the cafeteria is pretty heinous. >heinousness… …

    Dictionary of contemporary English

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