DREADFUL • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Dreadful

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/drˈɛdfəl/ Listen

adjective

Dreadful adj.

Full of dread or terror; fearful. (Obs.) "With dreadful heart."

Inspiring dread; impressing great fear; fearful; terrible; as, a dreadful storm. " Dreadful gloom." "For all things are less dreadful than they seem."

Inspiring awe or reverence; awful. (Obs.) "God's dreadful law."

Synonyms: Fearful; frightful; terrific; terrible; horrible; horrid; formidable; tremendous; awful; venerable. See Frightful.

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Etymology of 'Dreadful'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dreadful" Quotes from Famous Books

... so very dreadful?" asked Ida, with a smile. "You have told me that you love me. Is that a thing to be ashamed of? Must I tell you that I am glad you came to me when you were beaten, and not when you had won? Is there anything that I ...

— The Gold Trail • Harold Bindloss

... with his person. Upon my word, madam," says she, "it was very good to take this care of Miss Western; but common humanity, as well as regard to our family, requires it of us both; for it would be a dreadful ...

— The History of Tom Jones, a foundling • Henry Fielding

... twisted into a grim smile, the effect of which was heightened by the tattooed marks—a blue rim to the mouth, with a diagonal pointed streak from each corner towards the ear. He was dressed in European-style black hat, coat, and trousers—looking very uncomfortable in the dreadful heat which, it is unnecessary to say, exists on board a steamer, under a vertical sun, during mid- day hours. This Indian was a man of steady resolution, ambitious and enterprising; very rare qualities in the race to which he belonged, ...

— The Naturalist on the River Amazons • Henry Walter Bates

... town out of which McGregor had come was more inspiring as a place in which to live. As an unemployed young man, not much given to chance companionships, Beaut had spent many long evenings wandering alone on the hillsides above his home town. There was a kind of dreadful loveliness about the place at night. The long black valley with its dense shroud of smoke that rose and fell and formed itself into fantastic shapes in the moonlight, the poor little houses clinging to the ...

— Marching Men • Sherwood Anderson

... with the commander of the ship, and startled anew by his expression of blank incredulity, the glib flow of words conned so often during the steadfast but dreadful hours spent in ...

— The Stowaway Girl • Louis Tracy

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