heathenish
Americanadjective
-
of or relating to heathens.
heathenish practices of idolatry.
-
like or befitting heathens; barbarous.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- heathenishly adverb
- heathenishness noun
Etymology
Origin of heathenish
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.
Abolitionist Rodney French, a Massachusetts merchant and politician, called it the “most disgraceful, atrocious, unjust, detestable, heathenish, barbarous, diabolical, man-degrading, woman-murdering, demon-pleasing, Heaven-defying act ever perpetrated.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 12, 2022
Such a spirit, it once was believed, could return to earth, take heathenish possession of an innocent mortal.
From Time Magazine Archive
What brought these Senatorial headhunters together under the missionary banner of Mr. Hatch was a simple, heathenish fact: they were all interested in breaking up dangerously strong machines in their home States.
From Time Magazine Archive
Better Joe hath suggested some specific remedies, which Isaac the Joiner decries loudly as the cant of heathenish superstition; and indeed, one wonders at the applications of bone.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
The district is not populous, and, during our sojourn, the king and many of the natives had gone to a high heathenish festival in an adjacent valley, on the opposite side of the island.
From Los Gringos Or, An Inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia by Wise, H. A. (Henry Augustus)
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.
