Abominable — A Vocabulary Story
Suresh and the Socks of Doom
Suresh loved football more than anything, but after Saturday's match his socks smelled abominable. Not just a little bit whiffy. Properly, dreadfully, run-away-holding-your-nose abominable.
Abominable means extremely bad or unpleasant; causing disgust or hatred.
He peeled them off in the hallway and his big sister Priya staggered backwards, clutching the bannister. "What IS that?" she gasped. "It smells like a bin lorry ate a fish and then sat in the sun!"
Suresh sniffed proudly. "That's the smell of three goals," he said.
His mum was less impressed. She arrived with a peg on her nose and pointed at the socks with a wooden spoon, refusing to get any closer. "Those things are behaving abominably," she said through the peg. "They're stinking out the whole house. Even the postman wrinkled his nose at the door."
Suresh carried the socks to the washing machine at arm's length, walking slowly like a bomb disposal expert. Priya opened every window. Their dad wafted a tea towel about dramatically and declared it a national emergency.
But when Suresh opened the machine an hour later, disaster struck. He had forgotten the soap. The socks came out wet AND abominable, which everyone agreed was somehow worse.
Second time lucky. With soap, hot water and an extra rinse, the socks emerged smelling of lavender.
"Beautiful," said Mum, finally removing her peg.
Suresh grinned. Next Saturday he scored again, slid through a muddy puddle in celebration, and trudged home with socks so abominably muddy that Priya locked the front door.
Word Definition
abominable
meaning
extremely bad or unpleasant; causing disgust or hatred
synonyms
dreadful · atrocious · appalling · horrible · detestable
antonyms
admirable · delightful · wonderful
example sentence
The weather was absolutely abominable all week.