AWE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Awe

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/ɑ/ /ɔ/ Listen

noun

Awe n.

Dread; great fear mingled with respect. (Obs. or Obsolescent) "His frown was full of terror, and his voice Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe."

The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence. "There is an awe in mortals' joy, A deep mysterious fear." "To tame the pride of that power which held the Continent in awe." "The solitude of the desert, or the loftiness of the mountain, may fill the mind with awe the sense of our own littleness in some greater presence or power."

To stand in awe of, to fear greatly; to reverence profoundly.

Synonyms: See Reverence.

verb

Awe v. t. (past & past part. awed; pres. part. awing) To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread. "That same eye whose bend doth awe the world." "His solemn and pathetic exhortation awed and melted the bystanders."

See images of 'Awe'

Etymology of 'Awe'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Awe" Quotes from Famous Books

... d'Amiens, without the more resolute and heroic appeal of such a stronghold as the Cathedral of Durham, it is more human than either, the work of a man who, as it were, would thank God that he was alive and glad in the world. And it will never bring us delight if we ask of it all the consummate mystery, awe, and magic of the great Gothic churches of the North. The Tuscans certainly have never understood the Christian religion as we have contrived to do in Northern Europe. It came to them really as a sort of divine explanation of a paganism which entranced but bewildered ...

— Florence and Northern Tuscany with Genoa • Edward Hutton

... when you next write to him, that I find I owe him a mint of money for the delightful Swedish sleigh-bells. They are the wonder, awe, and admiration of the whole country side, and I never ...

— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 2 (of 3), 1857-1870 • Charles Dickens

... Pee-wee with a kind of awe. He had seen the other thief escape in the darkness; everything had been exciting and confused. But now, in the lamplight and within the safety of those four walls he beheld a real crook, caught, cornered, ...

— Pee-wee Harris on the Trail • Percy Keese Fitzhugh

... bride and bridegroom to the railway-station; and with the accident that there befell, the chronicle of Mr. Fogo's adventures may for the present close. While the brothers saw Tamsin to her carriage, and with their white waistcoats and gigantic favours planted awe in the breast of the travelling public, the bridegroom dived into the Booking Office to take the tickets for London; for Mr. and Mrs. Fogo were to spend some days in the ...

— The Astonishing History of Troy Town • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... at parting—I stood sufficiently in awe of her to put it off till the last moment—that Miserrimus Dexter had arranged to send his cousin and his pony-chaise to her residence on the next day; and I inquired thereupon whether my mother-in-law would permit me to call at her house ...

— The Law and the Lady • Wilkie Collins

More quotes...