Appall

//əˈpɔːl// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To fill with horror or indignation; to dismay. transitive

    "The evidence put forth at the court appalled most of the jury."

  2. 2
    fill with apprehension or alarm; cause to be unpleasantly surprised wordnet
  3. 3
    To make pale; to blanch. obsolete, transitive

    "Thanſwere that ye made to me my dere whañ I did ſewe for my poore hartes redreſſe hathe ſo apalld my countenaunce […]"

  4. 4
    strike with disgust or revulsion wordnet
  5. 5
    To weaken; to reduce in strength obsolete, transitive

    "wine of it owne nature will not congeale and freeze, onely it will loose the strength, and become appalled in extremitie of cold."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    To grow faint; to become weak; to become dismayed or discouraged. intransitive, obsolete
  2. 7
    To lose flavor or to become stale. intransitive, obsolete

Synonyms

All synonyms
dismayalarmdismayhorrifyshockabash

Example

More examples

"The evidence put forth at the court appalled most of the jury."

Etymology

From Middle English apallen, from Old French apalir (“to grow pale, make pale”); a (Latin ad) + palir (“to grow pale, to make pale”), pâle (“pale”), from pallere. See pale (adj.) and compare with pall.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.