a. Forms: 4 loþsom, 4–5 loothsom, 4, 6–7 Sc. and north. laithsum, -some, 5 lathesum, loth(e)sum, 6–9 loth(e)som(e, 7–8 loathsom, 6– loathsome. [f. LOATH sb. + -SOME; = OHG. leidsam.]
1. Exciting disgust or loathing. (Now always with emotional implication.) a. In physical sense: Exciting nausea; offensive to the senses; noisome, sickening.
a. 1300–1400. Cursor M., 23229 (Gött.). Fell dragons and tadis bath … ful laithsum [Cott. wlatsum] on to here and se … þar sal be.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xvi. (1495), 121. Yf the teeth were bare they were loathsom and nat fayr.
c. 1460. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems, 172. Man is but lothesum eorthe and claye.
1561. T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtyer, IV. (1577), S viij. Unwittinglye otherwhile eate some lothesome and abhorring meate.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. v. 72. A most instant Tetter bak’d about, Most Lazar-like, with vile and loathsome crust, All my smooth Body.
1671. Milton, Samson, 480. Thou must not … Lie in this miserable loathsom plight Neglected.
1703. Maundrell, Journ. Jerus. (1732), 2nd let. after p. 145. A Gouty scrofulous Substance, very loathsom to look upon.
1748. Anson’s Voy., III. viii. 383. The stench of the hold [was] loathsome beyond all conception.
1847. Grote, Greece (1862), III. xxvii. 42. She died shortly of a loathsome disease.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iv. I. 432. A loathsome volatile salt, extracted from human skulls, was forced into his mouth.
Comb. 1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., II. 671. Covered from head to foot with loathsome-smelling scabs.
b. In a moral sense: Hateful, distasteful, odious, repulsive, shocking.
c. 1440. Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W., 1494), I. lxiii. Wyth thy pryde thou defowlest all thy good dedes and makyth hem loothsom in the syghte of thy lorde.
1567. Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.), 218. How lusting lufe, that laithsum sin, The oppin eyis of sum do blind.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 112. If Lawe seeme loathsome unto thee, search the secrets of Physicke.
1666. Bunyan, Grace Ab., ¶ 84. I was more loathsome in my own Eyes than was a Toad.
1748. Hume, Ess. Mor. & Polit., xix. 208. The Mind, unexercis’d, finds every Delight insipid and loathsome.
1872. J. B. Holland, Marb. Proph., 93.
| Death can but loose a loathsome bond, | |
| And from the depths of my despond, | |
| I see no ray of light beyond. |
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), I. vii. 259. He was free from the errors which make some of Rousseau’s confessions loathsome.
† 2. Affected with loathing or disgust; disgusted. Const of. Obs.
1577. Harrison, England, III. xv. [ix.] (1877), II. 61. We, as lothsome of this abundance, or not liking of the plentie.
1579. Twyne, Phisicke agst. Fort., I. xxiv. 34 a. Thou mayest refresh thy loathsome and weeried minde.
