Definition of "appalling" []

• Causing consternation or dismay; frightful: appalling working conditions; appalling violence. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "U.S. President Barack Obama said the world is outraged by what he called the "appalling" violence against the Libyan people and is urging Gadhafi to step down."
• "Greece traditionally accepted only a tiny fraction of asylum applicants and a recent Human Rights Watch report condemned what it called an "appalling" system that left migrants, including children, stuck "for weeks or months in filthy and grossly overcrowded conditions.""
• "In a nine-page report, the State Department criticizes what it calls appalling and systematic repression, including forcing women away from education and out of their jobs."