How To Use Terrible In A Sentence

  • So spake he, and Athene was mightily angered at heart, and chid Odysseus in wrathful words: ‘Odysseus, thou hast no more steadfast might nor any prowess, as when for nine whole years continually thou didst battle with the Trojans for high born Helen, of the white arms, and many men thou slewest in terrible warfare, and by thy device the wide-wayed city of Priam was taken. Book XXII
  • Neo-Liberal leadership is a lot like the mob: "Yooz can take de money or yooz can have terrible tings happen to ya."
  • demands for rectification of terrible injustices
  • I've got a terrible string of fruity obscenities building up inside me.
  • A terrible outrage was committed here last night. Times, Sunday Times
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  • He gets a terrible going-over in these pages.
  • I had the terrible feeling of being left behind to bring up the baby while he had fun.
  • She looks terrible, shorn of all her beauty and dignity.
  • CJ is certainly more watchable than any of the prequels, but it's a terrible disappointment. The goofiest scene in all the Star Wars movies
  • The Holy Alliance was the joint labour of an unfortunate man who had suffered a terrible mental shock and who was trying to pacify his much-disturbed soul, and of an ambitious woman who after a wasted life had lost her beauty and her attraction and who satisfied her vanity and her desire for notoriety by assuming the rôle of self-appointed Messiah of a new and strange creed. The Story of Mankind
  • I feel terrible — something I ate must have disagreed with me.
  • The arrest has come as a terrible shock.
  • Still, he thinks the terrible puns served a purpose. Times, Sunday Times
  • The hurricane wreaked terrible damage on the east coast, at Miami and the Florida Keys.
  • a terrible power had her in its grasp
  • She goes from being a Southern belle, who's never been able to do anything practical, to someone who learns to survive under the most terrible circumstances of war and deprivation.
  • There's a terrible scene where he is chained to a whipping post and flogged with sadistic pleasure by brutish Roman guards.
  • The effect of my statement upon my husband was terrible to behold. LION IN THE VALLEY
  • Behind that quietness his nerves are jangling, he's in a terrible state.
  • There had even been, the nurses told Anastasia's mother, a terrible collision involving a bedpan. ANASTASIA KRUPNIK (3-IN-1)
  • Might it not be some terrible avenger, out of the mystery beyond life, placed to beset him and finish him finally on this road that he was convinced was surely the death-road? CHAPTER XXXVI
  • Cat dander is the only thing which makes me have terrible trouble breathing – my lungs, throat, I get itchy, sneezy, wheezy … and only seems worse, not better, with time around cats. If Wishes Were Pussycats | Her Bad Mother
  • Having neither opium nor hashish on hand, and being desirous of filling his brain with twilight, he had had recourse to that fearful mixture of brandy, stout, absinthe, which produces the most terrible of lethargies. Les Miserables
  • A terrible disservice is done to the half-million to one million non-Jewish parents helping to raise Jewish children whenever our community commissions yet another study to demonstrate how different the intermarried are from the in-married. Paul Golin: What Is the Biggest Divide in the Jewish Community?
  • Having your house broken into is terrible. I wouldn't wish it on anybody.
  • Then they sent St. Edmund a message to say that he must give up half his kingdom and pay heavy taxes, or they would do the most terrible "frightfulness" throughout the land. Stories of the Saints by Candle-Light
  • And that in itself becomes the great terrible mystery of the film - the monstrous enigma that propels the townspeople towards some inexplicable, and therefore, inextricable, oblivion.
  • Rome and her iniquities; the streets, deserted by the people, were trodden by French patrols; all was silent as the grave itself; and not a friend was there to bid them adieu; not a relative to speak a consoling word to the departing; and none to acquaint the unfortunates who remained behind with their terrible calamity! Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge
  • The previous occupants had left the house in a terrible mess.
  • He was terrible by the way, blathering on about something.
  • In 1947 partition divided their homeland and those finding themselves in Pakistan suffered terrible losses making their way to India.
  • But high command has yet again told them to leave the Bolly in the ice bucket, not least because it would look terrible to be seen quaffing champers when the chancellor will soon unveil the severest squeeze on public spending in decades. The Tories are still struggling to come to terms with the new order
  • She had an uneasy feeling that something terrible was going to happen.
  • Only the sizzling Mongolian lamb hotpot, mayo-slaughtered wasabi prawns, the stodgy dumplings and leaden-battered soft-shell crab were truly terrible.
  • But try proving that you were denied the certainty of a glorious, enriching career because of something terrible that happened when you were 13 years old. Times, Sunday Times
  • It was a terrible sin, she said: which means we've got to pray for forgiveness.
  • Dan called me a'terrible skiver ' when I caught up with him and it's true - I do skive off all the time. POPCO
  • The room awash with its terrible light; a sky unable to rain. Times, Sunday Times
  • I opened it and looked at that brilliant and terrible tongue which we call a blade; and I thought that perhaps it was the symbol of the oldest of the needs of man. Tremendous Trifles
  • They must leave with a terrible impression after seeing the state of our streets.
  • Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action. 
  • On the dance floor, a girl offered me a sniff of her poppers (if you don't know, I'm not going to tell you, then you can make up really terrible images for yourself).
  • It seemed so fitting for a gathering of people remembering something so terrible.
  • And we would feel constrained to confess ourselves poor diagnosticians if George Bernard Shaw, the enfant terrible of nimble wit in contemporaneous literature, succeeded in disproving the existence in himself of the same strain of blood as coursed in the veins of Heinrich Heine. The Social Disability of the Jew
  • Since he published a paper on fluoroquinolone side effects in 2001, says Dr. Jay Cohen, a medical researcher and associate professor at the University of California, San Diego, "I have received several hundred emails, most of which relate terrible, often catastrophic reactions that are slow to pass, leaving some people disabled for months or years. The ignored risks of America's most popular antibiotics
  • It challenges the seemingly benign interest we have in criminology and forces us to question our morbid fascination with terrible deeds. Times, Sunday Times
  • It received terrible ratings and was cancelled after just one series. The Sun
  • The thought that she might be dead was too terrible to contemplate.
  • The mortality on board some of the emigrant ships was terrible; and, whatever the cause, the deaths in _British ships_ enormously exceeded those in the ships of any other country. [ The History of the Great Irish Famine of 1847 (3rd ed.) (1902) With Notices of Earlier Irish Famines
  • She has just awoken from a year-long coma, and she’s still recovering from the terrible accident that caused it. Friday Book Club & Interview with Mary E. Pearson: The Adoration of Jenna Fox
  • For quick input, the stylus isn't terrible, but writing long e-mails or even inputting several contacts can be grueling.
  • Justice permits the doer of evil to be held accountable for every iota of harm that ensues as a result of the evil act, and that reckoning can be terrible indeed.
  • The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. Vincent van Gogh 
  • His face was a terrible color, like wetted ash, but his eyes were open and they saw her, they knew her. GALILEE
  • [A] divine fire coming down visibly, with a terrible noise, from heaven upon the holy community of sisters while they were praising God in their psalmody. Sensual Encounters: Monastic Women and Spirituality in Medieval Germany
  • The redundancy of skilled and experienced workers is a terrible waste and a clear sign of an unhealthy economy.
  • To her expert eye, the painting was terrible.
  • Losing weight was a terrible struggle.
  • Thus the word "nevermore," a gloomy, terrible word, comes into his mind, and he proceeds to brood over it. Outlines of English and American Literature : an Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived
  • It was a terrible strain on me to keep her at school, ma'am, and again and _again_ I've thought I couldn't stand it, what with her being in the shop only in the afternoon, and the washing, and trying to keep her clothes always nice; though she's been as good as Lippincott's Magazine, October 1885
  • Expanding a restaurant business is the terrible double-edged mezzaluna of high-end catering. Times, Sunday Times
  • The real life of a spy is terrible. Times, Sunday Times
  • Perhaps too many had died in their civil war for superior foreign armies to present so terrible a challenge. The Tribes Triumphant
  • I swallowed hard, trying to take in the sight of my home in such a terrible mess.
  • Broadly speaking, this is terrible counsel. Christianity Today
  • If you had a car and it made a terrible rattle you'd have it checked out immediately instead of waiting to for it to go kaput, the same principle applies to marriage.
  • I cannot advise what you call a fright, and what might be a terrible thing. Dona Perfecta
  • Back in the late 1970's I was at sea during a terrible storm in which several ships, including sailboats in the Fastnet Race, were lost.
  • She must have been a terrible malefactor indeed if her crimes are in proportion to her penalty.
  • Nothing could relieve my terrible sense of blame.
  • His classical treatment of the subject is worth serious reference; for it should be realised that Lincoln, who had both to learn his new trade of statecraft and to exercise it in a terrible emergency, did so with a large part of each day necessarily consumed by worrying and distasteful tasks of a much paltrier kind. Abraham Lincoln
  • That terrible festering secret of yours that burdens you, the hypocrisy of your life. The Sun
  • As if that's not enough to bring the whole party down, one of the politicians also carries a terrible medical secret.
  • Nine months before, a terrible accident plunged her mother into inconsolable grief.
  • Over against its left flank was a German "fortin," known to us as Stony Mountain, bristling with machine guns, guns which later did terrible execution. War Story of the Canadian Army Medical Corps
  • I love it when people pull out the "nimby" as if it's some terrible thing. Undefined
  • Four people are marooned on an Icelandic rock outcrop in terrible weather. Times, Sunday Times
  • Sores festered on her face and arms and a terrible stench clung to the air surrounding her.
  • Princess found herself shut up in the palkee, and being carried she knew not where, she thought how terrible it would be for her sister to return home and find her gone, and determined, if possible, to leave some sign to show her which way she had been taken. Tales of Wonder Every Child Should Know
  • Love is a terrible thing -- quite different from amiability, which is sometimes confused with it. The Next of Kin Those who Wait and Wonder
  • This created terrible slums, full of people living under horrible conditions.
  • I was actually expecting Princess Lover to be terrible, mainly because of the name, as well as the number of overgenerously proportioned females featured in the promo art. Anime Nano!
  • The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore. Vincent van Gogh 
  • I'm a terrible auditioner.
  • However, for many whose outgoings simply exceed their income on a regular basis such a loan may prove to be a terrible mistake.
  • If he could not reconvince her of his love, he would be in perpetual fear -- that he might come back and find her gone, fear that she might even do something terrible to herself. Beyond
  • But terrible, truly terrible and heart searching for the wrongdoer is the message -- God does not curse thee: thou hast cursed thyself. Town and Country Sermons
  • This ghost, laughing a little too loudly, would be all the more terrible for the flicker of awful, self-deluding pride kindling in it at the thought of white-knuckling through the grimmest month of the year with nothing to talk about in company but how it has given up drink. After the Binge Must Come the Purge
  • In any case, my assertion that The Airlords Of Han is a terrible novel (racist or not) is entirely correct. The “Buck Rogers” Quandry – In Which I Contradict Previous Views « The Graveyard
  • Truth compels me to state that the division was made honestly, and that little Stenne’s crime did not seem so terrible to him when he heard the coins jingling under his blouse, and thought of the games of galoche which he had in prospect. The Child Spy
  • It's painful to watch her making the best of a terrible script.
  • Who is responsible for this terrible mess?
  • Her terrible manners at the dinner table disgusted me.
  • It's hard to pick yourself up after such a terrible shock.
  • In the end they picked me up on the street for some cockamamy charge and held me, just for an hour, nothing very terrible.
  • But the city folk constituted a new and terrible destructive force, the equilibrium was overthrown, and the poppies well-nigh perished. The Golden Poppy
  • They look terrible for what they are. Times, Sunday Times
  • He had to create order and purpose in the midst of a terrible chaos.
  • They stretch her hair back and put on this terrible wig and strap her in to the battle garments of queenliness and she comes out and she's the embodiment of power. Fear And Clothing: Cintra Wilson's Fierce Fashion Prowess
  • The director's last two features, "The Mothman Prophecies" and "Henry Poole is Here" were more forgettable than terrible. ‘Orphanage’ Remake Adopted By ‘Arlington Road’ Director Mark Pellington » MTV Movies Blog
  • Signage on roads is terrible - coming just after you've missed the turn-off.
  • ‘This film features the character as a terrible and unpleasant person,’ Roth said adding that he regards himself as an angry man.
  • The residents, who wished to remain anonymous, said that the estate is in a terrible state of disrepair.
  • They left the flat in a terrible condition - there was mess everywhere.
  • The medicine slipped down well, but tasted terrible.
  • Under the paternal demeanor all anyone ever detected was a terrible waste balefulness. Pioneers of Alienation and 50s Sci-Fi at Thing Street Asylum
  • He has been witness to a terrible murder.
  • Oh, she could be a terrible flirt! Times, Sunday Times
  • To her expert eye, the painting was terrible.
  • It was a good company with a terrible balance sheet that had gone astray on some things. Times, Sunday Times
  • I had a terrible hangover the next morning.
  • But, for his own sake, and for the sake of the cattle in his care, let it be the first business of the estanciero to provide good and sufficient wells, so that the terrible history of 1904 may never be repeated. Argentina from a British Point of View
  • To put it generously, this was a terrible failure of imagination.
  • I had a terrible head and was extraordinarily drunk.
  • He feels as he discusses the power of myth that he is able to make people experience both terrible and noble deeds.
  • All those fed up with hearing about the terrible winters of the old days now have an epic story of their own. The Sun
  • The news has come as another terrible blow to the sport. Times, Sunday Times
  • The Turks forced the Anglo-Indian prisoners of war to march across the desert without adequate food, water, shelter, or medical attention and large numbers of POW's died under terrible conditions before reaching prison camps in Anatolia. Pursuit of an 'Unparalleled Opportunity': The American YMCA and Prisoner of War Diplomacy among the Central Power Nations during World War I
  • It seems staggeringly crass and inappropriate, but I understand his need to record this terrible scene.
  • Then did one of the Monstruwacans report that a new and terrible Influence was abroad in the Land; and by the instrument, we had knowledge that it approached; and some of the Monstruwacans called foolishly with weak voices to the Ten-thousand to haste; forgetting, and desiring only their safety from that which came near. The Night Land: Chapter 4
  • It smells terrible, and the stink was getting into my house, my van and other houses nearby.
  • This was evident, too, in the terrible monotony of the subjects studied and the very limited variety of the sources used.
  • Not getting the job was a terrible disappointment.
  • The fact is: There is a terrible shortage of organ donations.
  • On the forward slopes of this mountain, towards Monfalcone, terrible and bloody battles had been fought.
  • In fact, perhaps what is lurking underneath all your botheration is the idea that a Muslim has shot his fellow soldiers, this has terrible ramifications that you want to leave to others to “parse,” and none of these conclusions are politically correct. NSFW: After Fort Hood, another example of how ‘citizen journalists’ can’t handle the truth
  • It's hard to pick yourself up after such a terrible shock.
  • Terrible creatures had come - monsters made of stone, taller than a Rikath, with shiny black and purple skin and no faces.
  • As we were driving down these terrible, lumpy, unlit streets we were constantly catching whiffs of different smells.
  • It is a terrible reality that poor children in the South can get guns but not a decent meal.
  • He is a desperate character, and in other lands might be dangerous; but he is safe enough here, for the bastinado is a terrible instrument of torture, and the man is now not only desperate in wrath, but is sometimes desperately frightened. The Pirate City An Algerine Tale
  • Dialogue seemed a bit muffled in some sequences, but nothing terrible.
  • Whiskey always gives me a terrible hangover.
  • From the time of the arrival of the Empress we were in a state of terrible apprehension, and every one in the chateau was a prey to the greatest anxiety in regard to the Emperor. Complete Project Gutenberg Collection of Memoirs of Napoleon
  • The terrible suffering fuelled anti-capitalist protests, strikes and uprisings in many poor countries.
  • A terrible crime has been committed and the doers have to face the consequences of their actions.
  • A terrible old woman, with landlady written large all over her face and person, opened the door, and, without paying the slightest attention to me, began to rate the shopboy in no measured terms. Memoirs of Sir Wemyss Reid 1842-1885
  • Second, there are all the terrible dualities of human politics. Times, Sunday Times
  • Since the sacrifice of a single one of these cargo vessels caused terrible losses, merchants yearned to avoid the inevitable.
  • Later a man who was sitting at the bar sent me over a glass of sparkling white wine with his phone number, and in front of all the people I worked with, many of them terrible teasers, it was majorly hard to live down.
  • My personal life was terrible. My mother had died, and a couple of years later I had a breakdown.
  • It offers rare insights into how a country survives in terrible conditions and how decent people are corrupted by witnessing barely imaginable horrors. Times, Sunday Times
  • China's notoriously dangerous mining industry has exacted a terrible toll in the first four months of 2003.
  • The notion that this has been a uniquely terrible year is now well established. Times, Sunday Times
  • D'ye mind yon nicht langsyne when your faither came in wi 'a terrible look in his een and struck me in the breist? The House with the Green Shutters
  • She is not interested in neophilia, the insatiable hunger for the new that is one of the terrible afflictions of contemporary society. Victoria Miro, queen of arts
  • The real news is terrible right now, so here is a random science story from September 2001.
  • As the evening comes on, an incomprehensible feeling of disquietude seizes me, just as if night concealed some terrible menace toward me.
  • I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something terrible was going to happen.
  • Come lunch time and I felt really awful - had a terrible headache and just wanted to go home and go to bed.
  • The earthquake was a terrible catastrophe.
  • Regular meals keep the blood sugar level at a normal high, and prevents the terrible let down feeling that can result in moroseness, negativism, and sometimes even anger. Archive 2007-04-01
  • I'd better write this down; I have a terrible memory.
  • I felt terrible last night but I feel fine this morning.
  • Mother Nature had served up some terrible weather for their cruise.
  • In my experience, all women with hyphenated names are cows by default, but Emma-Kate was just terrible.
  • The grief of the parents of this poor girl has been terrible.
  • We heard something terrible had happened at the match. Times, Sunday Times
  • Beaches are becoming dumping grounds and more people need to get involved to correct this terrible problem. Times, Sunday Times
  • No matter how improbable it may seem to you in this terrible time, someday you will laugh again.
  • She also says that any man who's obsessed with football is terrible in bed.
  • Thus, the best form of tragedy is one that represents ‘terrible and piteous events’ that befall good and undeserving people.
  • It was a terrible thing to say, especially since he is an urbane man.
  • I saw a terrible smashup on my way to school.
  • Why would he be selfish enough to kill himself and leave poor Delia with this terrible burden?
  • That terrible traffic accident darkened her eyes.
  • None of these things are terrible, of course, but they do speak of certain ingrained attitudes towards women.
  • His dreams were of wars vast and terrible, with great weapons and periapts of power.
  • It was just those terrible scientist johnnies!
  • I feel cautiously optimistic that the lurgy has retreated enough that I won't pay a terrible price for going, but still ... Adelaide Natcon
  • She's been a believer since she survived a terrible car accident.
  • Beyond that, normatively, this seems like a crazy and terrible idea. Matthew Yglesias » Economist: If Only Obama Had Done Things He’s Actually Done, Things Might Be Different
  • Moments later , I heard a terrible crash.
  • I've been going through terrible pain thinking that she would be horribly, horribly disfigured. Times, Sunday Times
  • Mohammedan sword was again unsheathed; for fresh in their memories were the terrible atrocities perpetrated during the former uprising, which was one long intermittent period of bloodshed and pillage lasting from 1861 to 1874, both parties, however, assenting to a cessation of hostilities each year during seedtime and harvest. With the Tibetans in Tent and Temple: Narrative of Four Years' Residence on the Tibetan Borders, and of a Journey into the Far Interior
  • Participants were daubed with red paint to appear victims of terrible injuries. The Sun
  • In the night came "a terrible tempest," which scattered the duke's ships "one from another, so that two of them were not in compagnie together in one place;" and when the tempest had done its work, it passed away; and the gales were fair, and the heaven was clear, when, the next day, the earl "halsed up the sayles," and came in sight of Dartmouth. The Last of the Barons — Volume 10
  • They just ground on relentlessly and there seemed to be no cognisance of the fact that there was a terrible dimension to this and that someone was under such stress.
  • The pressure of fame can take a terrible toll.
  • I had a terrible fright this morning when I saw you there.
  • Tens of thousands more suffered terrible injuries in the world's worst industrial disaster.
  • Traffic congestion during peak commute hours is terrible.
  • He sat for a moment, looking hurt and confused and not quite able to digest all this terrible news.
  • The great increase of games and festivals and their enormous cost were signs of approaching trouble for the republic, and foretold the terrible days of the empire, when the rabblement of the capital, accustomed to be amused and fed by their despotic and corrupt rulers, should cry in the streets: "Give us bread for nothing and games forever! The Story of Rome from the Earliest Times to the End of the Republic
  • In retaliation McCarthy announced he was "breaking" with the Republican leader and accused the President publicly of "weakness and supineness" in ferreting out Communists, indeed claimed he himself had made a terrible mistake -- namely to have voted for Eisenhower in 1952! Nigel Hamilton: American Caesars
  • The terrible news spread like wildfire. The Sun
  • To be refused access is a terrible blow to your confidence. Times, Sunday Times
  • The bow-string twanged, the arrow leaped upward, and Broken-Tooth, uttering a terrible scream, fell off the branch. CHAPTER VII
  • He's one of these men who went bald very young and has a terrible hang-up about it.
  • Behind that gloss was something cold and terrible, that lurked and waited and watched -- something catlike, something inimical and deadly. CHAPTER II
  • In the Milky Way, near the Southern Cross, occurs a terrible circular abyss, the Coal Sack. The Blue Lagoon: a romance
  • a terrible stench saluted our nostrils
  • Enter Insomniac Movie Theater, where I subject myself to some of the worst, campiest and outright terrible movies the world has to offer … and the occasional cult classic. Insomniac Movie Theater: Commando » Scene-Stealers
  • The northernmost channel in our maps, “Maxwell River,” is known to Europeans and natives as Noangwa; Mamballa or the central line is called by the moderns Nshibúl, and the southern is dubbed by the hydrographer, “Rio Konio,” a truly terrible mistake for Sonho. Two Trips to Gorilla Land and the Cataracts of the Congo
  • So while the Japanese infantryman preparing to meet his Soviet counterpart could be in high spirits, his misunderstanding and misconceptions about the Red Army were about to exact a terrible price.
  • I had a terrible education. I attended a school for emotionally disturbed teachers. Woody Allen 
  • I stood up carefully, and from the new position I could see that at some point during the night Sillabub and I had found a couch, which would explain the terrible crick in my neck.
  • It was the most terrible war-shriek I had heard: a kind of wolfish baying that called up an image of all the dogs of war simultaneously tugging at their leashes. Fighting France
  • If we act fast, we can once and for all prevent wild animals in Britain from suffering terrible cruelty.
  • What happened afterwards was a terrible blow, and I felt bad for all the other players.

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