Definitions

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

  • adjective Given to or characterized by unwholesome thoughts or feelings, especially of death or disease.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or caused by disease; pathological or diseased.
  • adjective Psychologically unhealthy or unwholesome.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Diseased; sickly; not sound and healthful. As applied to mental conditions, it commonly implies an over-sensitive state, involving depression of spirits, in which matters affecting the emotions assume an exaggerated significance.
  • Proceeding from or characteristic of disease or a diseased condition.
  • Relating to disease: as, morbid or pathological anatomy.

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

  • adjective Not sound and healthful; induced by a diseased or abnormal condition; diseased; sickly
  • adjective Of or pertaining to disease or diseased parts.
  • adjective Indicating an unhealthy mental attitude or disposition; especially, abnormally gloomy, to an extent not justified by the situation; preoccupied with death, disease, or fear of death.
  • adjective Gruesome.

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

  • adjective originally Of, or relating to disease.
  • adjective Unhealthy or unwholesome, especially psychologically: mentally ill
  • adjective Suggesting the horror of death; macabre or ghoulish
  • adjective Grisly or gruesome.

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

  • adjective suggesting the horror of death and decay
  • adjective suggesting an unhealthy mental state
  • adjective caused by or altered by or manifesting disease or pathology

Etymologies

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

[Latin morbidus, diseased, from morbus, disease; see mer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin morbidus ("diseased"), from morbus ("sickness"), itself from the root of morior ("die") or directly from Proto-Indo-European *mor- (“to rub, pound, wear away”).

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Examples

  • The term morbid obesity is used to describe people whose body mass index (BMI) -- a measure of weight in relation to height -- is 40 or higher.

    canada.com Top Stories 2009

  • The term morbid obesity is used to describe people whose body mass index (BMI) -- a measure of weight in relation to height -- is 40 or higher.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2009

  • "Even in the hangar at the Kennedy Space Center, the debris from the crew cabin is laid out separately in a private area, and officials have promised to not disclose what they characterize as morbid details."

    NASA Watch: Keith Cowing: July 2003 Archives 2003

  • I have got what you call morbid just in consequence of the sophistry by which I persuaded myself that wrong could be right.

    Ruth Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell 1837

  • "But you have a lot of people, especially outside the euro area, who spend a lot of time in what I call morbid speculation, asking 'what if, what if'."

    BBC News - Home 2011

  • An astonishing number of his shorter works follow the inspiration of Crash, also filmed, this time by David Cronenberg, in morbid and almost loving accounts of “wound profiles,” gashes, fractures, and other inflictions on the flesh and bones.

    The Catastrophist 2010

  • Possible reasons behind the spike include an uptick in morbid obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, along with hemorrhaging from the growing numbers of C-sections.

    ProWomanProLife » Death rate increasing… in California 2010

  • Possible reasons behind the spike include an uptick in morbid obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, along with hemorrhaging from the growing numbers of C-sections.

    ProWomanProLife » Death rate increasing… in California 2010

  • You totally need to get that mounted just like it is, call it morbid, but it would keep the story alive, and the memory even more so.

    Potential African Record Black Marlin Eaten By Sharks 2010

  • You totally need to get that mounted just like it is, call it morbid, but it would keep the story alive, and the memory even more so.

    Potential African Record Black Marlin Eaten By Sharks 2010

Comments

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  • Morbido, in Italian, means soft. Morbid is morboso.

    I would spend the whole night, my love, caressing your morbid skin.

    March 26, 2009