morbid

adjective mor·bid \ˈmȯr-bəd\

: relating to unpleasant subjects (such as death)

: not healthy or normal

Full Definition of MORBID

a : of, relating to, or characteristic of disease <morbid anatomy>

b : affected with or induced by disease <a morbid condition>

c : productive of disease <morbid substances>

: abnormally susceptible to or characterized by gloomy or unwholesome feelings

: grisly, gruesome <morbid details> <morbid curiosity>

— mor·bid·ly adverb

— mor·bid·ness noun

See morbid defined for English-language learners

See morbid defined for kids

Examples of MORBID

Some of the material has been disclosed before, but it is wonderful to have the quotations from President Nixon and his aides gathered here in all their morbid splendor. —Anthony Lewis, New York Review of Books, 7 Apr. 2005
Danger can be sexy, but morbid proselytizing is a real buzzkill. —Emily Gordon, Nation, 5 May 1997
When I was a kid, I harbored a morbid fear of feathers. Feathers. Not a single feather or a few loose feathers, like the ones I'd stick in my naps to play Indian, but feathers in a bunch, … —John Edgar Wideman, New Yorker, 1 Aug. 1994
She suffered from a morbid streak which in all the life of the family reached out on occasions—the worst occasions—and touched us, clung around us, making it worse for her; her unbearable moments could find nowhere to go. —Eudora Welty, One Writer's Beginnings, 1983
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Origin of MORBID

Latin morbidus diseased, from morbus disease

First Known Use: 1656

Related to MORBID

Synonyms: black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dire, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, gloomy, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, solemn, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched

Antonyms: bright, cheerful, cheering, cheery, comforting, cordial, festive, friendly, gay, heartwarming, sunshiny

Other Anatomy Terms

bilateral symmetry, carotid, cartilage, dorsal, entrails, prehensile, renal, solar plexus, supine, thoracic, ventral

MORBID Defined for Kids

morbid

adjective mor·bid \ˈmȯr-bəd\

Definition of MORBID for Kids

: not healthy or normal <He has a morbid fear of snakes.>

: having or showing an interest in unpleasant or gloomy things <Some stared at the afflicted child with morbid fascination … — Ellen Raskin, The Westing Game>

Medical Dictionary

morbid

adjective mor·bid \ˈmȯr-bəd\

Medical Definition of MORBID

a : of, relating to, or characteristic of disease b : affected with or induced by disease <a morbid condition> <morbid alteration of tissues> c : productive of disease <morbid substances>

: abnormally susceptible to or characterized by gloomy or unwholesome feelings