All 3 Uses of
lurid
in
Dracula
- The red light in them was lurid, as if the flames of hell fire blazed behind them.†
p. 46.3
- It was a shock to me to turn from the wonderful smoky beauty of a sunset over London, with its lurid lights and inky shadows and all the marvellous tints that come on foul clouds even as on foul water, and to realize all the grim sternness of my own cold stone building, with its wealth of breathing misery, and my own desolate heart to endure it all.†
p. 126.9
- Yesterday I was almost willing to accept Van Helsing's monstrous ideas, but now they seem to start out lurid before me as outrages on common sense.†
p. 217.4 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(lurid) shocking, as from disturbing details of a horrible story, or a color more vivid (bright or deep) than would be expected
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Long ago, lurid referred to a yellowish color or things and from there to things so shocking they make someone turn pale. Later, but still in the 18th century, it was used to describe a vivid red and is still used to describe vivid colors--especially red.