adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bad/terrible joke (=not funny)
▪ Dad was known for his bad jokes.
a bad/terrible storm
▪ This was the worst storm for 50 years.
a bad/terrible/dreadful etc mistake
▪ It would be a terrible mistake to marry him.
a bad/terrible/nasty temper
▪ He ran back home in a terrible temper.
a crying/great/terrible shame
▪ It was a crying shame that they lost the game.
a dark/terrible secret (=a secret about something bad)
▪ I’m sure every family has a few dark secrets.
a horrific/terrible/appalling crash
▪ a horrific crash in which three teenage boys were killed
a real/awful/terrible etc nuisance
▪ The dogs next door are a real nuisance.
a serious/terrible misunderstanding
▪ There have been some serious misunderstandings which have led to conflict.
a severe/terrible/awful blow
▪ The news was a terrible blow for his family.
a terrible dilemma
▪ She was in a terrible dilemma because she loved both men.
a terrible disaster
▪ It was a terrible disaster which carried away a large part of the hillside.
a terrible misfortune
▪ At that time, being thin was considered a terrible misfortune for women.
a terrible price
▪ The sport can exact a terrible price from its participants.
a terrible scream (=by someone suffering great pain or fear)
▪ We were woken late that night by the most terrible screams.
a terrible state
▪ His apartment was in a terrible state.
a terrible strain
▪ It’s been a terrible strain.
a terrible/awful revenge
▪ Caesar returned to Rome to exact a terrible revenge.
a terrible/awful shock
▪ Her death was a terrible shock to everyone.
a terrible/dreadful etc flirt (=someone who flirts a lot)
▪ She’s an incorrigible flirt!
a terrible/dreadful ordeal
▪ The trial was a dreadful ordeal.
a terrible/great tragedy
▪ His death is a terrible tragedy for his family.
a terrible/horrible/grim fate
▪ The crew of the ship met a terrible fate.
a terrible/horrific crime (also a dreadful crime British English)
▪ What made him commit such a terrible crime?
a terrible/poor/rotten liar (=who does not tell believable lies)
▪ You're a rotten liar, Julia. What really happened?
a terrible/stupid/odd etc thing to say
▪ I know it’s a terrible thing to say, but I wish he’d just go away.
awful/dreadful/terrible weather
▪ We came home early because of the awful weather.
bad/poor/terrible
▪ A student with a poor memory may struggle in school.
bad/poor/terrible/awful
▪ Why do doctors have such terrible handwriting?
bad/terrible
▪ The traffic was terrible this morning.
bad/terrible (=with many spots or marks)
▪ I had terrible skin when I was a teenager.
▪ My skin’s really bad at the moment.
bad/terrible/severe
▪ I’ve got a really bad headache.
enfant terrible
have a good/terrible etc time
▪ Thanks for everything – we had a great time.
in good/bad/terrible etc condition
▪ How do you keep your hair in such perfect condition?
terrible news (=very bad)
terrible toothache
▪ I had terrible toothache all last night.
terrible trouble
▪ I’ve been having terrible trouble sleeping.
terrible (=very bad)
▪ Some of the victims suffered terrible injuries.
terrible/awful
▪ I woke up with a terrible pain in my side.
the awful/terrible/dreadful etc truth
▪ She could not bring herself to tell them the awful truth.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
how
▪ Suddenly I realized how terrible the fight would be for Elizabeth.
▪ It's enough for him to remind you just how terrible the other congregation is.
▪ By Andrew Rawnsley HOW terrible it can be when your dreams come true.
▪ He complained to me about how terrible it was.
▪ She couldn't wait until she was old. How terrible to be thirty and not to have realised one's ambitions!
▪ You listen to how good you are, then how terrible you are.
▪ She realized how terrible the noises of war must be.
▪ They begin their pitch by emphasizing how terrible it is to be fat.
more
▪ For the yellow menace.was even bigger and more terrible than they knew.
▪ Earth gave birth to her last and most frightful offspring, a creature more terrible than any that had gone before.
▪ The hopeless cry came again, louder, nearer, and more terrible than before.
▪ Hermes warned him that if he persisted in his stubborn silence, he should suffer still more terrible things.
▪ As time passed, the face in the picture grew slowly more terrible.
▪ For Dorian, this was more terrible than the dead body in the room.
▪ For a long time she waited, and nothing more terrible came to enter that silence than her own dark imaginings.
▪ But do you not think the life of the Thirties, the daily life, was much more terrible?
most
▪ The most terrible bad form. 5.
▪ And there Dionysus showed himself in his most terrible aspect.
▪ That question was decided for her in a most terrible way.
▪ The fire was the most terrible enemy our men met that day.
▪ And they've left the most terrible mess in their bedrooms.
▪ It seemed to concern his father and the stranger, and as such, must be of the most terrible importance.
▪ The most terrible, awful thing that could have happened.
▪ Bob Dole is the most terrible of the candidates for the Republican nomination, until you consider all the others.
so
▪ Oh, but the damage was so terrible, the mess so unspeakable, that he did not know where to begin.
▪ The smell is so terrible you want to throw up.
▪ At first I thought he would learn because he made us look so terrible.
▪ Nothing half so terrible had happened to her; no one she loved had been killed or even hurt.
▪ Its disappearance was quickly succeeded by the explosion. So terrible a spectacle is seldom witnessed.
▪ His screams were so terrible that none who ever heard them forgot them till their dying day.
▪ All the sentences they give me to say are so terrible.
■ NOUN
accident
▪ His body felt that it had been in a terrible accident.
▪ A terrible accident befalling strangers but truly affecting each of us so deeply.
▪ One slip or lapse and a terrible accident would never be far away.
▪ Because of this terrible accident, we have been offered some-thing precious.
▪ For a moment he thought he had been in a terrible accident.
▪ If it was murder and not some terrible accident.
▪ And he felt, obscurely, that the terrible accident needed to be given coherent thought.
condition
▪ It was hard to imagine that children were willingly enduring such terrible conditions.
▪ They were in terrible condition, Scotch tape on some of them, others all beat up and scuffed and folded.
▪ Roads in the liberated areas are few and in terrible condition.
▪ When she was dumped she was in terrible condition, coping with seven young pups.
▪ The population in the north and east are now living in terrible conditions.
▪ Disorder was accentuated by the terrible conditions.
▪ Q My hair is in terrible condition.
danger
▪ But what could be strong enough to drive a man from his homeland, to face terrible dangers in the skies?
▪ Yet he must consider that possibility, for if it was true, he was in terrible danger.
▪ But now they're in terrible danger.
▪ But what probably worried them more was the terrible danger Berthold was putting himself in.
event
▪ On the first two occasions it preceded some terrible event, so he is in a state of great apprehension.
▪ And how will the fractured Cappadora family survive this terrible event?
▪ Police added that at one stage he had trouble in speaking about the terrible events.
▪ As Theseus listened, overwhelmed by this sum of terrible events, Hippolytus still breathing was carried in.
▪ There are three lessons to be drawn from this terrible event.
▪ Felix Jaeger cursed the dark destiny that had dragged him into these terrible events.
▪ The valley seemed to be waiting, holding its breath in anticipation of some terrible event.
▪ As he regains consciousness, he gradually remembers the terrible events of the last few days.
injury
▪ The couple have had months of treatment for their terrible injuries.
▪ I looked after her, feeling like some one who has just sustained a terrible injury from which he will never recover.
▪ This is a good quality in that we will fight on despite terrible injuries, Sir.
▪ The appeal was launched with the help of former patients whose recovery from terrible injuries has been helped by such treatment.
▪ They were horrified the next morning when they saw that the child was covered in terrible injuries.
▪ Both badgers and terriers often suffer terrible injuries.
▪ Police said yesterday the terrible injuries on their bodies, washed up on a beach, could be deceptive.
mistake
▪ Have I made a terrible mistake?
▪ I made the terrible mistake of returning home to Cheyenne to practice law.
▪ Once I drank too much and spent the night with her, which was a terrible mistake.
▪ I wanted to make up for the terrible mistakes I had made during his childhood and youth.
▪ It was all a terrible mistake.
▪ I was afraid that if I appeared too eager, it might dawn on the woman she had made a terrible mistake.
▪ Frankly, it all looked like a terrible mistake.
▪ Rcagan had no choice but to withdraw the Marines, and in effect admit a terrible mistake.
news
▪ What terrible news could it contain?
▪ Sit down, Benjamin, I have terrible news.
▪ He was, in fact, trying to break the terrible news gently to his father.
▪ A few hours later came the terrible news.
▪ At last I could share my terrible news with my friend.
▪ At this last, Seton left them, to make for his own castle near Cockenzie, with his terrible news.
▪ The man Who laughs is merely some one Who has not yet heard the terrible news.
▪ It is terrible news for publicists and headline hunters everywhere but the secret has to be revealed.
ordeal
▪ It must have been a terrible ordeal.
▪ I have no doubt this has been a terrible ordeal for you and the verdict is a personal and professional catastrophe.
▪ Having a will professionally drawn up is not a terrible ordeal and it need not take long to explain your wishes.
▪ It was a terrible ordeal for my hon. and learned Friend and for his family.
▪ The strain has been a terrible ordeal.
pain
▪ It was five minutes before he stopped yelling, before he started to absorb the terrible pain that burnt through his flesh.
▪ She looked into his eyes and saw terrible pain and inconsolable grief.
▪ In the terrible pain and surprise of the moment, both my pistols went off and fell from my hands.
▪ He wanted to, but to be so close would expose him to that terrible pain of loss.
▪ And after about three days, I was in terrible pain and started to bleed a lot.
▪ It did not last but the parting seems to have been no terrible pain, the memory very fond.
▪ Asleep, he'd felt a terrible pain in his upper arm.
place
▪ Save me from this terrible place!
▪ It was a terrible place, he said.
▪ Digby was in that terrible place which comedians fear most of all - the gag swamp.
▪ How could I get away from this terrible place?
▪ I don't expect them to leave here with a catalogue of stories about what a terrible place Whitely is.
▪ A terrible place, St Jude's Passage.
▪ What is this terrible place ...?
▪ It was the most terrible place she had ever been in in her life.
shock
▪ Being told I had cancer was a terrible shock.
▪ It gave us all a terrible shock.
▪ This will be a terrible shock to her.
▪ I had a terrible shock when you opened your eyes and looked so steadily at me.
▪ He looked at the chair by the fireside and got a terrible shock.
▪ I hadn't seen them carry her in from the car so it was a terrible shock for me.
▪ Losing your aunt like that must have been a terrible shock.
state
▪ And he was in a terrible state.
▪ They did not tell her this, but they reproached her for hiding her terrible state from them, her own sisters.
▪ He was in that terrible state of lumbar pain where mobility involves a slow ambulatory squat.
▪ It was in a terrible state when we moved in but we cleaned it up and made it quite homely.
▪ He also had drains that were in a terrible state and therefore wanted one of his sons to become a plumber.
▪ She hurried round to Mozart's apartment, where she found Constanze in a terrible state, though trying to keep calm.
thing
▪ What terrible things I have done!
▪ Instinctively we knew that terrible things were going to happen in our elderly aunts peaceful living room.
▪ She knew the terrible things her son had written to the girl after she had rejected him.
▪ He was right, of course, Alistair had done terrible things to me.
▪ Recently I have witnessed some terrible things.
▪ When Kip first arrived a terrible thing had happened.
▪ It was a horrible thing, a terrible thing, which could have deranged anybody in my opinion.
▪ And the terrible thing is, Ray, part of him liked it.
things
▪ What terrible things I have done!
▪ Throughout history terrible things have happened when one man or group believed themselves superior to the rest of us.
▪ There are terrible things going on here.
▪ Instinctively we knew that terrible things were going to happen in our elderly aunts peaceful living room.
▪ No wonder she'd lied when so many terrible things had started happening all around her.
▪ This is so despite the terrible things we learn when we look into the backgrounds of those who go beyond the limits.
▪ We hear terrible things of your schooling system in my country, and I've met a lot of you.
▪ Sleeping people do all kinds of terrible things to one another.
time
▪ I know you had a terrible time and the last thing I meant to do was to upset you.
▪ It had been a terrible time for him, but it was all over.
▪ I was the best-known face in East Anglia, but I was having a terrible time.
▪ My father is angry at me for going away with my family at this terrible time.
▪ It was a dark and terrible time.
▪ She'd had a terrible time at the birth.
▪ Amelia had a terrible time that winter.
tragedy
▪ More often, however, they haunt that person alone and by so doing indicate some terrible tragedy is imminent.
▪ They elope together, wander the country in search of work, and, finally, a terrible tragedy overtakes their children.
trouble
▪ All of a sudden the dynamite business was in terrible trouble.
▪ When something goes wrong, as it always does, they are in terrible trouble.
truth
▪ A careful read of this book will show that underpinning it is a terrible truth.
▪ They had admitted terrible truths to them-selves, which the rest of us worked hard to deny.
▪ They now knew the terrible truth, even though without a body they still could not mourn.
▪ She could not discredit this terrible truth.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be a good/wonderful/terrible etc cook
▪ As a result, the adult John is obsessed with food, has an overstocked fridge and is a good cook.
▪ Franca, said to be a good cook, was not a good cook, just an ingenious cook.
▪ He is a good cook, isn't he?
▪ My aunt and I are good cooks.
▪ Nils may be a good cook, but his time will be better spent away from the galley.
▪ Of motivation to get good grades in school or to be a good cook?
▪ To be a good cook you have to do a lot of things precisely, but it requires no understanding.
▪ Zelah was a good cook and he enjoyed the meal.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a terrible accident
▪ I have a terrible headache.
▪ The movie was terrible.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He had some idea of what was ahead of him, for he knew the terrible tales about the Robemaker's Workshops.
▪ He says it's terrible, because the aircraft has such a good safety record.
▪ I was withdrawing from drugs and in a terrible state.
▪ It is hard to believe that you will be able to make something happen to get you out of this terrible mess.
▪ Students like Andrea are caught in a terrible bind.
▪ The attitude they have towards you is terrible, like you're lower than the dirt they tread on.
▪ Yet beyond the immediate and terrible losses suffered, the fire had lasting consequences for the lives of Californians.