[ad. L. execrātiōn-em (exsecrātiōn-em), n. of action f. execrā-ri (exsecrā-ri) to EXECRATE. Cf. Fr. exécration.]
1. The action of execrating.
† a. The action of solemnly laying under a curse; an instance of this. Obs. or arch.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Chron. xv. 15. Thei sworen to the Lord with a grete voice … with execracioun.
c. 1585. R. Browne, Answ. to Cartwright, 34. The power of the word … to rebuke and giue ouer to execration.
1652. Benlowes, Theoph., Author’s Prayer 21. The execration of the Son of Thy Love.
1729. Butler, Serm., Wks. 1874, II. 84. To assist with the religious ceremony of execration.
1754–62. Hume, Hist. Eng., II. xxxi. 210. The ecclesiastics … kept the world in subjection by holy execrations.
1863. J. G. Murphy, Comm. Gen. xxvi. 28. An oath of execration on the transgressor.
b. The utterance of curses (as an expression of hatred).
1688. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 379, IV. 174. The Lord Chancellor was taken and brought amid universal execration of the People before the Lord Mayor.
1769. Robertson, Chas. V., III. VIII. 104. The name of Maurice was mentioned, with execration.
1840. Macaulay, Clive, 79. A tempest of execration and derision … burst on the servants of the Company.
c. Utter detestation; intense abhorrence.
[1557. N. T. (Genev.), 1 Cor. xvi. 22. If any man loue not the Lord Iesus Christe, let him be had in execration.]
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 11/2. It [the title pope] is now worthilie come into contempt and execration.
1676. Stillingfl., Def. Disc. Rom. Idol., 146 (J.). The Indians … at naming him [the Devil] did spit on the ground in token of execration.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. xiv. 383. For the Pizarro’s being the first conquerors of that coast, the Peruvian Indians held the name, and all that bore it, in execration.
1848. Mariotti, Italy, I. i. 91. The Sicilian Vespers have long been made a subject of horror and execration.
2. An uttered curse; an anathema, an imprecation.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1684), III. 949/1. All the Country … with Execrations detested them.
1603. B. Jonson, Sejanus, V. x. (1605), N b. And with such black, and bitter execrations … she fills the ayre.
1650. B., Discolliminium, 21. The Romane proverbiall execration, abi in malam Crucem.
1793. Mrs. E. Parsons, Woman as she should be, II. 207. I could write volumes … in execrations against the match.
1820. Keats, Eve St. Agnes, x. Lords, Whose very dogs would execrations howl Against his lineage.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, iv. 100. A man who in the present day would have been hunted from society with execrations.
3. That which is execrated; an object of cursing.
1611. Bible, Jer. xliv. 12. They shalbe an execration and … a reproch.
1871. R. Ellis, Catullus, xiv. 22/11. Clumsy Poet-rabble, an age’s execration!
