disgustful

comparative more disgustful · superlative most disgustful

1. archaicdisgusting, vile.

   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

   3 more examples

   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.

   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

   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

2. Full of disgust.

   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

   1 more example

   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.