Definition of "execration"
execration
noun
countable and uncountable, plural execrations
An act or instance of cursing; a curse dictated by violent feelings of hatred; an imprecation; an expression of utter detestation.
Quotations
He inveighed againſt the Folly of making oneſelf liable for the Debts of others; vented many bitter Execrations againſt the Brother; and concluded with wiſhing ſomething could be done for the unfortunate Family.
1749, Henry Fielding, chapter VIII, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume V, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book XIII, page 72
[W]hile all mourned and honoured the dead, thou hast lived to merit our hate and execration—lived to unite thyself with the vile tyrant who murdered thy nearest and dearest— […]
1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, chapter XIII, in Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], page 220
When some of those brave and honest though misguided men who had sate in judgment on their King were dragged on hurdles to a death of prolonged torture, their last prayers were interrupted by the hisses and execrations of thousands.
1835 July, [Thomas Babington Macaulay], “Art. I.—History of the Revolution in England in 1688. Comprising a view of the Reign of James the Second, from his Accession, to the Enterprise of the Prince of Orange, by the late Right Honourable Sir James Mackintosh; and completed to the Settlement of the Crown, by the Editor. To which is prefixed, a Notice of the Life, Writings, and Speeches of Sir James Mackintosh. 4to. London: 1834”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal, volume LXI, number CXXIV, Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Company, for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, London; and Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh, page 294
For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration.
1946 April 11, Albert Camus; Stuart Gilbert, transl., part 2, chapter V, in The Stranger, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, OCLC 343192; reprinted New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, June 1967 (12th printing), OCLC 1990040, page 154
That which is execrated; a detested thing.
Quotations
For thus ſaith the Lord of hoſts the God of Israel, As mine anger and my furie hath beene powred foorth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ſo ſhall my furie bee powred foorth upon you, when yee shall enter into Egypt: and ye ſhall be an execration, and an aſtoniſhment, and a curſe, and a reproch; and ye ſhall ſee this place no more.
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], Jeremiah 42:18