dreading

[ dred-ing ]

verb

1. the present participle of dread.

Word History and Origins

Origin of dreading¹

dread + -ing ²

Example Sentences

I spent the last golden days of fall mentally preparing myself to spend winter alone, bundled up in blankets and existential dread.

From Outside Online

I started to dread every time I put the oximeter around my finger, fearing this would be the day that the measurement dropped below 95, the bottom end of “normal,” and Carrie would have to take me to the emergency room.

From Washington Post

He tried not to acknowledge Wednesday as the two-year anniversary of his injury and kept noticing, with dread, the rack of throwback jerseys that Washington would wear Sunday that sat all week in the team’s training room.

From Washington Post

There are always holiday naysayers who dread Thanksgiving, loathe “It’s a Wonderful Life” and shout, “Bah, humbug!”

From Washington Blade

The new Supreme Court term will open on Monday under a cloud of uncertainty — and dread, if you’re a liberal.

From Vox

Gävle Goat must be dreading the imminent holiday and his fifty-fifty chance of destruction.

From The Daily Beast

Is it possible to really look forward to something, while dreading it too?

From The Daily Beast

I was dreading that moment, because there I was thinking I was wasting all of my money and I would have no more savings.

From The Daily Beast

For Kentucky fans dreading a gut-wrenching defeat, suddenly the impossible was possible!

From The Daily Beast

I became paranoid and avoided her neighborhood, dreading the idea of running into her.

From The Daily Beast

"Yes, yes," cried his lordship impatiently, dreading a repetition of what had occasioned him such intense pain.

From Project Gutenberg

She guessed what was coming; she had been a good deal afraid of it all the time; it was her only cause of dreading Coronado.

From Project Gutenberg

It might have been fancied that Nature, dreading his bold spirit, adopted the plan of slowly undermining his bodily power.

From Project Gutenberg

Michael Strogoff could not help smiling at the epithet bestowed on him, dreading spies as he did above all else.

From Project Gutenberg

Quin had been dreading the question, but when it came he did not evade it.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• afraid
• apprehensive
• careful
• concerned
• distressed
• fearful
• fidgety
• jittery
• nervous
• restless
• scared
• uneasy
• uptight