When people are lured into looking at something, they may be drawn to it because it's a shocking, graphic, or horrible scene, something lurid and very vivid that pulls them in. Shrunken heads of witch doctors and crime scenes are examples of lurid things.
- Pronunciation: / 'lʊrɪd /
- English Description: horrible in fierceness or savagery
- Synonyms: shocking
- Chinese Translation: 可怕的(ke3 pa4 de)
- Spanish Translation: provocador
- ORIGIN: An expression used to avoid hearing or seeing disturbing things is "spare me the lurid details" or "spare me the gory details," and people say that so they won't have shocking or ugly images put into their imaginations. The word lurid, which entered English in the 17th century, comes from Latin lūridis, "ghastly, pale yellow." All of the synonyms for the adjective lurid describe qualities that can turn a person pale: dreadful, nightmarish, and horrific, among others. Luridis just a uniquely dark and gruesome word.
EXAMPLE SENTENCE:
- The cabin is banded in a wainscoting of diagonally grained lumber, and it’s lurid with indirect lighting like a Stockholm oxygen bar.
- The lurid details surfaced in an Indianapolis courthouse.
*New word description, story and part of "EXAMPLE SENTENCE" are cited in Vocabulary.com