| / English Dictionary |
DREADED
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Causing fear or dread or terror
Example:
a terrible curse
Synonyms:
awful; dire; direful; dread; dreaded; dreadful; fearful; fearsome; frightening; horrendous; horrific; terrible
Classified under:
Similar:
alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Past simple / past participle of the verb dread
Context examples:
She dreaded lest she should learn to be insensible of it.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
With these feelings, she rather dreaded than sought for the first view of that well-known spire which would announce her within twenty miles of home.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
A very gracious invitation was returned, and the evening no longer dreaded by the fair mistress of the mansion.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Every thing was too recent for gaiety, but the evening passed tranquilly away; there was no longer anything material to be dreaded, and the comfort of ease and familiarity would come in time.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
But he did not venture to give him his dismissal, for he dreaded lest he should strike him and all his people dead, and place himself on the royal throne.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
But when a creature pretending to reason could be capable of such enormities, he dreaded lest the corruption of that faculty might be worse than brutality itself.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
You would not have gone, however, said Elinor, recovering herself, and determined to get over what she so much dreaded as soon as possible, without receiving our good wishes, even if we had not been able to give them in person.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Amy being gone, Laurie was her only refuge, and much as she enjoyed his society, she rather dreaded him just then, for he was an incorrigible tease, and she feared he would coax the secret from her.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
He had followed the trail of his fleeing people for eleven days, and his pursuit had been in itself a flight; for behind him he knew full well were the dreaded Russians, toiling through the swampy lowlands and over the steep divides, bent on no less than the extermination of all his people.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
I dreaded the words that Renfield might speak.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
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