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macabre

   Also found in: Legal, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.01 sec.
ma·ca·bre  (m-käbr, m-käb, -käbr)
adj.
1. Suggesting the horror of death and decay; gruesome: macabre tales of war and plague in the Middle Ages. See Synonyms at ghastly.
2. Constituting or including a representation of death.

[Ultimately from Old French (Danse) Macabre, (dance) of death, perhaps alteration of Macabe, Maccabee, from Latin Maccabaeus, from Greek Makkabios.]

ma·cabre·ly adv.
Word History: The word macabre is an excellent example of a word formed with reference to a specific context that has long since disappeared for everyone but scholars. Macabre is first recorded in the phrase Macabrees daunce in a work written around 1430 by John Lydgate. Macabree was thought by Lydgate to be the name of a French author, but in fact he misunderstood the Old French phrase Danse Macabre, "the Dance of Death," a subject of art and literature. In this dance, Death leads people of all classes and walks of life to the same final end. The macabre element may be an alteration of Macabe, "a Maccabee." The Maccabees were Jewish martyrs who were honored by a feast throughout the Western Church, and reverence for them was linked to reverence for the dead. Today macabre has no connection with the Maccabees and little connection with the Dance of Death, but it still has to do with death.

macabre [məˈkɑːbə -brə]
adj
1. gruesome; ghastly; grim
2. (Fine Arts & Visual Arts / Art Terms) resembling or associated with the danse macabre
[from Old French danse macabre dance of death, probably from macabé relating to the Maccabees, who were associated with death because of the doctrines and prayers for the dead in II Macc. (12:43-46)]
macabrely  adv
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Adj.1.macabre - shockingly repellent; inspiring horror; "ghastly wounds"; "the grim aftermath of the bombing"; "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"
alarming - frightening because of an awareness of danger

macabre
Translations
macabre [məˈkɑːbr] ADJmacabro

macabre [məˈkɑːbrə] adjmacabre

macabre
adjmakaber

macabre [məˈkɑːbr] adjmacabro/a
macabre [məˈkɑːbr] adjmacabro/a

macabre
adj macabre [məˈkaːbr]
weird, unearthly or horrible macabre horror stories. makaber رَهيب، مُرَوِع страховит strašidelný makaber grausig, makaber μακάβριος macabro õudne مهیب makaaberi macabre מָקַבּרִי पैशाचिक sablastan hátborzongató mengerikan óhugnanlegur, dauða- macabro 気味の悪い 소름끼치는 klaikus, makabriškas drausmīgs; šaušalīgs dahsyat dan mengerikan griezelig makaber makabryczny macabro macabru мрачный, жуткий strašidelný grozoten, obešenjaški jeziv makaber น่าขยะแขยง korkunç 可怕的, 恐怖的 похмурий; жахливий ہولناک، سنگین rùng rợn , ,令


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Gounod had conducted the Funeral March of a Marionnette; Reyer, his beautiful overture to Siguar; Saint Saens, the Danse Macabre and a Reverie Orientale; Massenet, an unpublished Hungarian march; Guiraud, his Carnaval; Delibes, the Valse Lente from Sylvia and the Pizzicati from Coppelia.
The ears hung at different angles, negligently; and the macabre figure of that mute dweller on the earth steamed straight up from ribs and backbone in the muggy stillness of the air.
 
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