ENORMITY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Enormity

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/ɪnˈɔrməti/ /inˈɔrməti/ Listen

noun

Enormity n. (pl. enormities)

The state or quality of exceeding a measure or rule, or of being immoderate, monstrous, or outrageous. "The enormity of his learned acquisitions."

That which is enormous; especially, an exceeding offense against order, right, or decency; an atrocious crime; flagitious villainy; an atrocity. "These clamorous enormities which are grown too big and strong for law or shame."

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Etymology of 'Enormity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Enormity" Quotes from Famous Books

... before he has acquainted them with what he would have them know; let the Subject, or the Occasion he preaches upon, be what they will. Besides, an artful Orator may mention frightful Things without giving Uneasiness to his Hearers. He may set forth the Enormity of any great Sin, and the Certainty of the Punishment, that is to follow it. He may display and dwell upon the Terrors of the Divine Vengeance for a considerable Time, and turn at last all the Weight of it upon their Adversaries; and having demonstrated to his Audience, that those ...

— An Enquiry into the Origin of Honour, and the Usefulness of Christianity in War • Bernard Mandeville

... was reserved a few hours, that he might be sacrificed under circumstances of peculiar enormity. A hole being dug in the ground of a depth sufficient to enable him to stand upright, with his head only exposed, his arms were pinioned to his body, he placed in it, and the loose earth thrown in and rammed closely around him. He was then scalped and permitted to remain in that situation ...

— Chronicles of Border Warfare • Alexander Scott Withers

... mission, the choice of their members, everything announced that the states were not assembled as tax- payers, but as legislators. The right of regenerating France had been granted them by opinion, was devolved on them by public resolutions, and they found in the enormity of the abuses and the public encouragement, strength to undertake and accomplish this ...

— History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 • F. A. M. Mignet

... had passed from her mind; and her father, while he was living, had been away from her so much that she hardly knew him as a parent. Her antecedents, therefore, did not qualify her to comprehend the loathsome enormity of the course she proposed to ...

— Hope and Have - or, Fanny Grant Among the Indians, A Story for Young People • Oliver Optic

... shame. Leonora's flat refusal, her pitiless mockery of his speech, had brought him to realize the enormity of his baseness. She was avenging herself by bringing him face to face with the abjectness of his mad, hopeless passion, which made him capable of committing the ...

— The Torrent - Entre Naranjos • Vicente Blasco Ibanez

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