macabre — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Representing or personifying death.

   Examples

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   There are four fundamental figures. One is a man measuring and comparing his world[…] In front of him is a macabre figure, a cadaver ready to be dissected. This symbolizes man serving mankind. The third figure is the scientist, the man who makes use of the information gathered in the first two fields of mensurable science.

2. Obsessed with death or the gruesome.

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   Indeed, in the 1854 draft of Tristan he planned to have Parzival visit the dying knight, and both operas display the same macabre obsession with bloody gore and festering wounds.

3. Ghastly, shocking, terrifying.

   Synonyms

   ghastlyhorrifyingshockingterrifying

   Examples

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   The appeal of the spectrally macabre is generally narrow because it demands from the reader a certain degree of imagination and a capacity for detachment from every-day life.

Adjective

1. shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

   Synonyms

   ghastlygrimgrislygruesomesick

   Examples

   ghastly wounds

   the grim aftermath of the bombing

   More examples (5)

   the grim task of burying the victims

   a grisly murder

   gruesome evidence of human sacrifice

   macabre tales of war and plague in the Middle ages

   macabre tortures conceived by madmen