for ‧ bid ‧ ding /fəˈbɪdɪŋ $ fər-/ BrE AmE adjective
having a frightening or unfriendly appearance
forbidding place/land/landscape etc
We sailed past the island’s rather dark and forbidding cliffs.
His face was forbidding, even hostile.
—forbiddingly adverb
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THESAURUS
■ place/organization
▪ unfriendly making you feel as though you are not wanted:
The report found that the Church can seem unfriendly to outsiders.
▪ unwelcoming unfriendly - used especially about the physical characteristics or appearance of something:
The entrance to the factory is cold, bare, and unwelcoming.
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The new fence is just one example of the city’s attempt to make public spaces unwelcoming to the homeless.
▪ impersonal lacking the normal friendly relations between people who work or do business together:
I had no desire to work for a large impersonal organization.
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They just handed over the keys and walked out – it was all so impersonal.
▪ forbidding unfriendly, uncomfortable, and a little frightening, so that you do not want to go there:
The school was a rather forbidding building surrounded by a high steel fence.