terrific

• terrifick (obsolete)

From French terrifique, and its source, Latin terrificus (“terrifying”), from terrere (“to frighten, terrify”) + -ficus, from facere (“to make”).

• IPA^(key): /təˈɹɪfɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɪfɪk

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terrific (comparative more terrific, superlative most terrific)

1. (now rare) Terrifying, causing terror; terrible; sublime, awe-inspiring. [from 17th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:frightening

   • 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman‎:

     [T]he dismal shrieks of demoniac rage […] roused phantoms of horror in her mind, far more terrific than all that dreaming superstition ever drew.

   • 1820, [Charles Robert Maturin], Melmoth the Wanderer: A Tale. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Company, and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., […], →OCLC, page 154:

     Think of wandering amid sepulchral ruins, of stumbling over the bones of the dead, of encountering what I cannot describe,—the horror of being among those who are neither the living or the dead;—those dark and shadowless things that sport themselves with the reliques of the dead, and feast and love amid corruption,—ghastly, mocking, and terrific.

   • 1860, Charles Dickens, Captain Murderer:

     He made love in a coach and six, and married in a coach and twelve, and all his horses were milk-white horses with one red spot on the back which he caused to be hidden by the harness. For, the spot would come there, though every horse was milk-white when Captain Murderer bought him. And the spot was young bride's blood. (To this terrific point I am indebted for my first personal experience of a shudder and cold beads on the forehead.)

2. Very strong or intense; excessive, tremendous. [from 18th c.]

   The car came round the bend at a terrific speed.

   I've got a terrific hangover this morning.

   • 1769, Joseph Collyer, transl., The Messiah‎, 4th edition, page 280:

     The ſtar tremulous turn'd its thundering poles, and the whole creation reſounded; when, with terrific haſte, Adamida, in obediance to the divine command, flew amidſt overwhelming ſtorms, ruſhing clouds, falling mountains, and ſwelling ſeas.

   • 1943, H. Lorna Bingham, The Lost Tribe, Sydney: Winn and Co., page 23, column 2:

     When the warriors saw this, their cheers were terrific.

3. Extremely good; excellent, amazing. [from 19th c.]

   I say! She's a terrific tennis player.

• brilliant
• horrific

• terrible
• terrify
• terrifying
• terror
• terrorist
• terrorize

• terrific in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• “terrific”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

• ferritic