| / English Dictionary |
DREADFUL
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Extremely disagreeable and unpleasant
Example:
don't go out, the weather is dreadful
Classified under:
Similar:
disagreeable (not to your liking)
Derivation:
dreadfulness (a quality of extreme unpleasantness)
Sense 2
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)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Exceptionally bad or displeasing
Example:
an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room
Synonyms:
abominable; atrocious; awful; dreadful; painful; terrible; unspeakable
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)
Derivation:
dreadfulness (a quality of extreme unpleasantness)
Context examples:
It was sweetly reproachful, wondering what had kept him away for so dreadful a length of time.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I was a happy and successful man, Mr. Holmes, and on the eve of being married, when a sudden and dreadful misfortune wrecked all my prospects in life.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Dreadful stories they were—about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
He turned a dreadful smile to me, and as if with the decision of despair, plucked away the sheet.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
There was this dreadful man, Woodley, if you can call him an admirer.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
It struck her with dreadful force, and she was ready to give it every bad name in the world.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
When you get a good Irishman you can’t better ’em, but they’re dreadful ’asty.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I caught a dreadful cold, but that I did not regard.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
If I understand you rightly, you had formed a surmise of such horror as I have hardly words to—Dear Miss Morland, consider the dreadful nature of the suspicions you have entertained.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Suppose I were to be seized of a sudden in some dreadful way, and not able to ring the bell!
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
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