▸ adjective extremely unpleasant:
obnoxious odors
he found her son somewhat obnoxious.
– ORIGIN late 16th century (in the sense ‘vulnerable to harm’): from Latin obnoxiosus, from obnoxius ‘exposed to harm’, from ob- ‘towards’ + noxa ‘harm’. The current sense, influenced by noxious, dates from the late 17th century.