English▸ adjective disturbing because concerned with or causing a fear of death:
a macabre series of murders.
– ORIGIN mid 19th century (in dance macabre): French, from Danse Macabre ‘dance of death’, from Old French, perhaps from Macabé ‘a Maccabee’ (see Maccabee), with reference to a late medieval dance or procession called ‘the dance of the Maccabees’.