DETESTABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does detestable mean? 

• DETESTABLE (adjective)
  The adjective DETESTABLE has 2 senses:

1. offensive to the mind

2. unequivocally detestable

  Familiarity information: DETESTABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DETESTABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Offensive to the mind

Synonyms:

abhorrent; detestable; obscene; repugnant; repulsive

Context example:

the most repulsive character in recent novels

Similar:

offensive (unpleasant or disgusting especially to the senses)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Unequivocally detestable

Synonyms:

abominable; detestable; execrable; odious

Context example:

consequences odious to those you govern

Similar:

hateful (evoking or deserving hatred)

 Context examples 

They growled and barked like detestable dogs, mewed, and flapped their arms and crowed.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

It was a distinct victory I had gained, and I refused to forego any of it by shaking his detestable hand.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something down-right detestable.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

“I suppose she was to be subdued and broken to their detestable mould, Heaven help her!” said I. “And she has been.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I assure you he is very detestable; the Admiral's lessons have quite spoiled him.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

What is passable in youth is detestable in later age.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

And indeed to avoid so monstrous and detestable a sight was one principal motive of my retirement hither.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Impatient to get rid of those hateful evidences of her folly, those detestable papers then scattered over the bed, she rose directly, and folding them up as nearly as possible in the same shape as before, returned them to the same spot within the cabinet, with a very hearty wish that no untoward accident might ever bring them forward again, to disgrace her even with herself.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The neighbourhood, to our ears, seemed haunted by approaching footsteps; and what between the dead body of the captain on the parlour floor and the thought of that detestable blind beggar hovering near at hand and ready to return, there were moments when, as the saying goes, I jumped in my skin for terror.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)