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Definition of disastrous adjective from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

disastrous

adjective
 
 
/dɪˈzɑːstrəs/
 
/dɪˈzæstrəs/
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  1. very bad, harmful or unsuccessful synonym catastrophic, devastating
    • a disastrous harvest/fire/result
    • Lowering interest rates could have disastrous consequences for the economy.
    • It was a disastrous start to the season for the team.
    Extra Examples
    • This could have equally disastrous consequences.
    • The church was rebuilt after a disastrous fire in 1824.
    • The war ended in 1815 but was followed by a series of disastrous harvests.
    Topics Difficulty and failurec1
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverbs
    • be
    • prove
    • become
    • …
    adverb
    • absolutely
    • completely
    • quite
    • …
    See full entry
    Word Originlate 16th cent. (in the sense ‘ill-fated’): from French désastreux, from Italian disastroso, from disastro ‘disaster’.
See disastrous in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee disastrous in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
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