Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Upsetting or horrifying by association with death or injury; gruesome: synonym: ghastly.
  • adjective Constituting or including a representation of death.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective portraying human injury or death in a way so as to inspiring shock or horror; gruesome; ghastly.
  • adjective Pertaining to or portraying the grim aspects of death, or the allegorical dance of death.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Representing or personifying death.
  • adjective Obsessed with death or the gruesome.
  • adjective Ghastly, shocking, terrifying.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective shockingly repellent; inspiring horror

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

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

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French macabre, whose etymology is uncertain.

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Examples

  • It's difficult to describe the illustrations of Edward Gorey without using the word "macabre."

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • There is a certain macabre sense of voyeurism throughout The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, partly because the movie lays bare the inner workings of the imagination, but largely due to the fact that this film serves as the final film from Heath Ledger.

    Lauren Kalal | Fandomania 2010

  • There is a certain macabre humour about it though.

    We`re a Couple Of Gems Newmania 2007

  • I didn't pursue it with a Goth kid's reverence (and besides, anyone who tries to apply here who gives the boss a feeling that they like the Cure and use the word macabre more often than the next guy is swiftly shown the door), but with a sense of irony, or at least what my eighteen year old brain thought was a sense of irony.

    Throwaways 2009

  • I didn't pursue it with a Goth kid's reverence (and besides, anyone who tries to apply here who gives the boss a feeling that they like the Cure and use the word macabre more often than the next guy is swiftly shown the door), but with a sense of irony, or at least what my eighteen year old brain thought was a sense of irony.

    Throwaways 2009

  • My first thought when I saw the babies and children was "how macabre is this?"

    Post-Mortem Portraiture 2006

  • Look at it from a purely aesthetic standpoint and it may, have a certain macabre appeal.

    North and South 1937

  • Look at it from a purely aesthetic standpoint and it may, have a certain macabre appeal.

    The Road to Wigan Pier 1937

  • Especially one guy, who's subjected to ..., well, I'm not even going to tell you except to say that the word macabre applies.

    Archive 2007-04-08 Bill Crider 2007

  • "She looked at me and looked away," Stumpo told NEWSWEEK, as he recalled the macabre scene in an exclusive interview.

    Motherhood And Murder 2007

Comments

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  • I'm a big fan of it's when pronounced "muh-cawb" vs. "mu-ca-bruh".

    The implied "re" on the end really sings to me.

    September 22, 2007

  • It's one of those words I never say aloud. But I always assumed it was pronounced "MAC uh bree." Hmm, maybe I shouldn't be admitting that here. ;-)

    September 22, 2007

  • We won't tell anyone. ;-)

    September 23, 2007

  • Somehow it sounds more enigmatic to pronounce it "-cawb."

    November 22, 2007

  • Sounds like mu(h)-carb in Australia.

    November 22, 2007

  • I can't think of many words that are as often mispronounced as this one.

    August 4, 2008

  • The OED gives the two pronunciations /məˈkɑːbrə/ and /məˈkɑːb/ in that order for BrE, and the AmE equivalents in the same order. This seems to me to miss the natural third possibility, /məˈkɑːbə/, but I assume they've done some sort of quantitative research and found that few people pronounce it that way. I doubt that many people 'mispronounce' it.

    August 4, 2008

  • Shouldn't it be pronounced 'mac-kuh-ber' , you know, like how sabre is said as ' say-ber'?

    June 1, 2012

  • That etymology is fascinating.

    June 1, 2012

  • Were the Maccabees especially macabre?

    June 2, 2012