Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US campus) terrible.

[1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 135: ‘I think that’s terrible. To say something like that’ [...] ‘You find that particularly heinous, do you?’].
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Mar. 5: heinous – anything bad, ugly, or negative.
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 5: heinous crime – very fat and/or ugly female.
1989		J. Doyle College Sl. Dict. 🌐 hanus [UCSB] really, really bad [Alt. spelling: heinous].
1996		Eble Sl. and Sociability 54: Heinous ‘terrible’ can describe objects (‘My hair looks heinous’).
2002		R. Gordon Can’t Be Satisfied 188: Muddy was making his worst records; the horns on ‘Short Dress Woman’ are heinous.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 171: [Y]ou think maybe you should start drinking from the other [bottle] ’cause it’ll be less heinous.

2. (US teen) fantastic.

1992

D. Burke Street Talk 2 31: What a heinous car!; What a fantastic car!

3. very drunk.

1995		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 5: heinous [...] Very drunk: ‘Becky was heinous this weekend’.
1998		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.