Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Lurid \Lu"rid\, a. [L. luridus.]
   1. Pale yellow; ghastly pale; wan; gloomy; dismal.

            Fierce o'er their beauty blazed the lurid flame.
                                                  --Thomson.

            Wrapped in drifts of lurid smoke On the misty river
            tide.                                 --Tennyson.

   2. (Bot.) Having a brown color tonged with red, as of flame
      seen through smoke.

   3. (Zo["o]l.) Of a color tinged with purple, yellow, and
      gray.

Source : WordNet®

lurid
     adj 1: horrible in fierceness or savagery; "lurid crimes"; "a lurid
            life"
     2: glaringly vivid and graphic; marked by sensationalism;
        "lurid details of the accident" [syn: {shocking}]
     3: shining with an unnatural red glow as of fire seen through
        smoke; "a lurid sunset"; "lurid flames"
     4: ghastly pale; "moonlight gave the statue a lurid luminence"