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Definition of "obnoxious" []

  • Very annoying or objectionable; offensive or odious: "I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution” ( Ulysses S. Grant). (adjective)
  • Archaic Exposed to harm, injury, or evil: "The town ... now lies obnoxious to its foes” ( John Bunyan). (adjective)
  • Archaic Deserving of or liable to censure. (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.

Use "obnoxious" in a sentence
  • "HUFFTINGTON: Well, the greatest fears have to do with the voices in our heads, what I call the obnoxious roommate living in our head, putting us down every day."
  • "Although Mr. Isaacson is not analytical about his subject's volatile personality the word "obnoxious" figures in the book frequently, he raises the question of whether feelings of abandonment in childhood made him fanatically controlling and manipulative as an adult."
  • "Ratko Mladic defiantly refused on Friday to enter pleas to what he called "obnoxious" allegations that as the Serb military chief during the Bosnian war he orchestrated the worst atrocities of a conflict that claimed 100,000 lives."