disastrous
Americanadjective
-
causing great distress or injury; ruinous; very unfortunate; calamitous.
The rain and cold proved disastrous to his health.
-
Archaic. foreboding disaster.
Other Word Forms
- disastrously adverb
- disastrousness noun
- nondisastrous adjective
- nondisastrously adverb
- nondisastrousness noun
- predisastrous adjective
- predisastrously adverb
- quasi-disastrous adjective
- quasi-disastrously adverb
- undisastrous adjective
- undisastrously adverb
Etymology
Origin of disastrous
1580–90; < Middle French desastreux, Italian disastroso. See disaster, -ous
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
This disastrous turn of events should shame America, and shame the world.
From Salon
A year from now, this will either look like a genius move that kept Nvidia’s industry-leading gross profit margin high or a disastrous example of hubris that destroyed its gross margin.
From Barron's
"The first shows us how the genome's 3D structure is carefully built at the start of life. The second shows us the disastrous consequences for human health if that structure is allowed to collapse."
From Science Daily
But Chip’s need for connection and reflexive sense of entitlement proves disastrous — the story isn’t going the way he wanted, and Groff allows it to collapse on him.
From Los Angeles Times
England went from bad to disastrous, France didn't fire on all cylinders but had enough to maintain their Grand Slam challenge, Scotland dug deep for a big win and Ireland were just tremendous.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
