Library / English Dictionary

APPALL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: appalled    , appalling   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fill with apprehension or alarm; cause to be unpleasantly surprised

Example:

The news of the executions horrified us

Synonyms:

alarm; appal; appall; dismay; horrify

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "appall" is one way to...):

affright; fright; frighten; scare (cause fear in)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "appall"):

shock (strike with horror or terror)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strike with disgust or revulsion

Example:

The scandalous behavior of this married woman shocked her friends

Synonyms:

appal; appall; offend; outrage; scandalise; scandalize; shock

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "appall" is one way to...):

churn up; disgust; nauseate; revolt; sicken (cause aversion in; offend the moral sense of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

The bad news will appall him

The performance is likely to appall Sue

Credits

 Context examples: 

She turned the page and her head at the same time, pointing to the sum which would have been bad enough without the fifty, but which was appalling to her with that added.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Both the sisters seemed struck: not shocked or appalled; the tidings appeared in their eyes rather momentous than afflicting.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He pushed open a half-closed door, and we both stood appalled at the sight before us.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For a moment or two we stood appalled, all save Lord Godalming, who was seemingly prepared for such an emergency.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

A thick, black cloud swirled before my eyes, and my mind told me that in this cloud, unseen as yet, but about to spring out upon my appalled senses, lurked all that was vaguely horrible, all that was monstrous and inconceivably wicked in the universe.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Till midnight, she supposed it would be in vain to watch; but then, when the clock had struck twelve, and all was quiet, she would, if not quite appalled by darkness, steal out and look once more.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He was appalled at the vast edifice of etiquette, and lost himself in the mazes of visiting-card conduct between persons in polite society.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I think even the hunters are appalled at his cold-bloodedness.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There is something terribly appalling in our situation, yet my courage and hopes do not desert me.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Or were they appalled by the gigantic load of debt which must bend the backs of many generations unborn?

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)