awful
Americanadjective
-
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
adjective
-
very bad; unpleasant
-
archaic inspiring reverence or dread
-
archaic overcome with awe; reverential
adverb
Commonly Confused
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.
Other Word Forms
- awfulness noun
- quasi-awful adjective
- quasi-awfully adverb
- unawful adjective
- unawfulness noun
Etymology
Origin of awful
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English a(g)heful, aueful; awe + -ful; replacing Old English egefull “dreadful”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
She said some had attended the workshops but "we didn't have an awful lot of hairdressers, which is sad".
From BBC
Rather than those games against Manchester City and Arsenal being an awful start, they proved to be a springboard.
From BBC
CBT stands for cognitive behavioral therapy, which sounds painful, but isn’t as awful as it sounds.
From Literature
Clare tried to muster some satisfaction that his point had been made, but for someone who’d just won, he felt an awful lot like a loser.
From Literature
It wasn’t until the #MeToo movement that she saw it for the awful episode it was.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
