Dictionary

disgustful en · ADJ

Etymology

From disgust + -ful.

Meanings

1. (archaic) disgusting, vile.
   • Let me therefore beseech you, sir, to become an advocate for your niece, that she may not be made a victim to a man so highly disgustful to her. 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter XXXII”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn, […], →OCLC:
   • It was a monosyllable beginning with a b—, and indeed was the same as if she had pronounced the words, she-dog. Which term we shall, to avoid offence, use on this occasion, though indeed both the mistress and maid uttered the above-mentioned b—, a word extremely disgustful to females of the lower sort. 1742, Henry Fielding, chapter XVII, in Joseph Andrews:
   • What a train of disgustful incidents, what a record of degrading circumstances, is the life of a great poet! 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Poet’s Midnight”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 57:
   • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Oxford University Press, 2006, A Voyage to the Country of the Houyhnhnms, Chapter VI, p. 236, Or else from the same Store-house, with some other poysonous Additions, they command us to take in at the Orifice above or below, (just as the Physician then happens to be disposed) a Medicine equally annoying and disgustful to the Bowels; which relaxing the Belly, drives down all before it: And this they call a Purge, or a Clyster.
2. Full of disgust.
   • In his disgustful recoil from an overture which tho' he but ill comprehended he instinctively knew must involve evil of some sort, Billy Budd was like a young horse fresh from the pasture suddenly inhaling a vile whiff from some chemical factory, and by repeated snortings tries to get it out of his nostrils and lungs. 1924, Herman Melville, chapter 13, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.:
   • With a melancholy, disappointed, and disgustful mind, he had quitted the land of his birth; and new scenes, strange and wild, had risen before his wandering gaze. 1838, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, chapter 14, in Alice, or The Mysteries, Paris: Beaudry's European Library, page 65:

Forms

Deriveds

disgustfulness · disgustfully