Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Causing loathing; abhorrent. synonym: offensive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Such as to cause loathing or excite disgust; disgusting; odious; detestable.
  • Synonyms Nauseous, nauseating, revolting, sickening, abominable, hateful.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Fitted to cause loathing; exciting disgust; disgusting.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective highly offensive; sickening, abominable

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective causing or able to cause nausea
  • adjective highly offensive; arousing aversion or disgust

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English lothsome : loth, hateful; see loath + -som, adj. suff.; see –some.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English lothsum, as if loath +‎ -some.

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Examples

  • $56,000 in May 2009 alone, also considered what he called the loathsome prospect of working for BP in the cleanup, but his boat was rejected.

    post-gazette.com - News 2010

  • Writ large throughout these dire exercises, however, is a single word, a word loathsome in its enormity, the dreadful and dire “stakeholder”.

    Stakeholders and chips Richard 2004

  • Did those of them who escaped the missiles of their enemies or survived the dying decreed against them by their brutal enemies in loathsome jails and prison ships, are they not all gone?

    God Seen Above All National Calamities 1865

  • I have already mastered, in loathsome persecutions and ignoble misfortunes, what would have killed most men; but there has been no dignity; no glory; I have only succeeded in avoiding being stifled and swallowed up in stinking mire.

    Zoe: The History of Two Lives 1845

  • A shameful destruction: He shall perish like his own dung or dunghill, so loathsome is he to God and all good men, and so willing will the world be to part with him, Ps. cxix.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon) 1721

  • British actor COLIN FIRTH finds small children "loathsome" - despite having three kids of his own.

    Contactmusic Ltd | Latest music streams 2008

  • I have to remember to call the loathsome people in Washington neocons - or better yet, fascists - as opposed to conservatives, since they are not interested in conserving anything.

    common ground 2005

  • I have to remember to call the loathsome people in Washington neocons - or better yet, fascists - as opposed to conservatives, since they are not interested in conserving anything.

    Archive 2005-01-01 2005

  • Mieville's main characters are often conflicted, impulsive, selfish, and wonderfully complex, but they end up fighting against forces that are entirely loathsome, which is a cop-out.

    Archive 2004-08-01 2004

  • You have raised the veil from a corner of your great world -- your London -- and have shown me a glimpse of what I might call loathsome, but which I prefer calling _strange_.

    Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle Clement King Shorter 1891

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