i Register
In some senses, abysm is marked as archaic, literary, poetic. Watch for register when choosing this word.
abysm
/ˈæbɪzəm/
noun 2
Collocations
4ADJ.
dark, late, plumbless
ABYSM + NOUN
orcadian
PREP.
between
ADV.
backward
Definitions
noun
1
Hell; the infernal pit; the great deep; the primal chaos.
Orkney is an archipelago of 70 or so islands lying off the northeast tip of Scotland. “Everywhere in Orkney there is the sense of age, the dark backward and abysm,” the late Orcadian poet George Mackay Brown wrote. “The islands have been inhabited for a very long time, from before the day of the plough.”
2
An abyss; a gulf, a chasm, a very deep hole.
The abysm of hell.
Dr. Prunesquallor had circled around Steerpike with his head drawn back so that his cervical vertebrae rested against the near wall of his high collar, and a plumbless abysm yawned between his Adam’s apple and his pearl stud.
Thesaurus
Synonyms
noun — a bottomless gulf or pit
Antonyms
Idioms & Phrases
Example Bank
301
Orkney is an archipelago of 70 or so islands lying off the northeast tip of Scotland. “Everywhere in Orkney there is the sense of age, the dark backward and abysm,” the late Orcadian poet George Macka
Wiktionary02
The abysm of hell.
Wiktionary03
Dr. Prunesquallor had circled around Steerpike with his head drawn back so that his cervical vertebrae rested against the near wall of his high collar, and a plumbless abysm yawned between his Adam’s
WiktionaryUsage Notes
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