be detestable

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.

An ornament that would be admirable applied to one object, might be detestable if applied to another.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 598, June 18, 1887 by Various

"Let them," said the Queen, "be brought away only by their own consent, otherwise the act will be detestable, and bring down the vengeance of heaven upon us."

From Twenty-Two Years a Slave, and Forty Years a Freeman Embracing a Correspondence of Several Years, While President of Wilberforce Colony, London, Canada West by Steward, Austin

I have always known him to be detestable, but until recently I thought that he was also detestably and invariably in the right—or, anyhow, that he could not be proved in the wrong.

From Mystery at Geneva An Improbable Tale of Singular Happenings by Macaulay, Rose, Dame

"She expressed her concern lest any of the Africans should be carried off without their free consent; declaring that such a thing would be detestable, and call down the vengeance of Heaven upon the undertakers."

From An Appeal in Favor of that Class of Americans Called Africans by Child, Lydia Maria Francis

It would be detestable, but it would have to be done.

From Gone to Earth by Webb, Mary Gladys Meredith