ppl. a. [ad. L. abhorrent-em, pr. pple. of abhorr-ēre: see ABHOR.]
1. Abhorring, shrinking with horror; having or showing abhorrence, repugnance, or detestation (of).
1749. Smollett, Regicide, IV. iii. 79 (1777). No! let me wipe thee … From my abhorrent thoughts!
1810. Southey, Kehama, viii. 9. Whiten the lip, and make the abhorrent eye Roll back and close.
1835. I. Taylor, Spirit. Despotism, iv. 155. The two principles … are abhorrent the one of the other.
1869. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, xv. § 5. 533. The Greek of the heroic age was eminently temperate and abhorrent of excess.
2. In a position of recoil or dissent from; strongly opposed to; at variance subjectively.
a. Of persons, which is the original use.
1619. Sanderson, Serm. I. ad Clerum, § 21. They (the Puritans) jumpe with the Papists, whom they would seeme above all others most abhorrent from.
1664. H. More, Apology, 498. Which I must confess Calvin seems abhorrent from.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 71. These Philosophers fall unawares into that very thing which they are so abhorrent from.
1790. Burke, French Rev., 199. The persons most abhorrent from blood, and treason, and arbitrary confiscation.
b. Of things: So far removed from as to be repugnant or inconsistent.
1720. Rowe, Tamerlane, V. i. 71. It is a manner Abhorrent from the softness of thy Sex.
1794. Burke, Rep. of Committee on Lords’ Journ., Wks. XIV. 379. Two stages of proof, both of them contrary to the law, and both abhorrent from its principles.
1822. T. Taylor, Metam. of Apuleius, 364. For similars are not abhorrent from similars.
1845. Stephen, Laws of Eng., I. 113. An act abhorrent from Hindoo superstition.
1864. Merivale, Boyle Lect., 37. The simple theory of the Gospel … was strange and abhorrent from the prejudices of the heathen.
3. Repugnant in nature or character (to); at variance objectively.
1660. R. Coke, Elem. Power & Subj., 64. It is abhorrent and impossible to frame a Commonwealth in England from the example of the Romans and Athenians. Ibid., 49. Anarchy is like a vacuum in Nature; so abhorrent, that the World will rather return into Chaos, then suffer it.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Mankind, 2. I think Atheism so unreasonable a thing, so abhorrent to the Light of Nature.
1685. Burnet, More’s Utopia, 9. In a Way so abhorrent to my Genius.
1796. Burke, Regicide Peace, Wks. 1842, II. 323. A guilty race, to whose frame … order, peace, religion, and virtue, are alien and abhorrent.
1863. Kemble, Residence in Georgia, 15. They are not abhorrent to nature.
4. Hence, through influence of 1: Viewed with repugnance and aversion; hateful, detestable, abhorred.
1833. I. Taylor, Fanaticism, § 1. 3. Pride, abhorrent as it is.
1852. Miss Yonge, Cameos (1877), III. xiii. 114. These of course were abhorrent to the English, who were delighted when Edward and Warwick hurried to the north.
1874. R. Congreve, Essays, 166. The case becomes almost infinitely more abhorrent, when their acts … expose others to suspicion.
