extremely bad; unpleasant; ugly: awful paintings; an awful job.
inspiring fear; dreadful; terrible: an awful noise.
solemnly impressive; inspiring awe: the awful majesty of alpine peaks.
full of awe; reverential.
extremely dangerous, risky, injurious, etc.: That was an awful fall she had. He took an awful chance by driving here so fast.
adverb
Informal. very; extremely: He did an awful good job of painting the barn. It's awful hot in here.
Origin of awful
1200–50;Middle Englisha(g)heful, aueful; see awe, -ful; replacing Old Englishegefull dreadful
Related formsaw·ful·ness, nounqua·si-aw·ful, adjectivequa·si-aw·ful·ly, adverbun·aw·ful, adjectiveun·aw·ful·ness, nounCan be confusedawfulawesomeoffal (see usage note at the current entry)
Usage note
Although some object to any use of awful or awfully in any sense not connected with a feeling of awe, both have been used in other senses for several centuries. Awful and awfully as adverbial intensifiers— awful ( ly ) hot; awful ( ly ) cold —appear in the early 19th century, following much the same pattern as horribly and dreadfully. As an adverb awful is less formal in tone than awfully. In the sense “inspiring awe or fear” awesome has largely replaced awful.
c.1300, agheful "worthy of respect or fear," from aghe, an earlier form of awe (n.), + -ful. Replaced Old English egefull. Weakened sense "very bad" is from 1809; weakened sense of "exceedingly" is by 1818.
