dreadful
causing great dread, fear, or terror; terrible: a dreadful storm.
inspiring awe or reverence.
extremely bad, unpleasant, or ugly: dreadful cooking; a dreadful hat.
Origin of dreadful
1Other words for dreadful
Other words from dreadful
- dread·ful·ness, noun
- quasi-dreadful, adjective
- qua·si-dread·ful·ly, adverb
Words Nearby dreadful
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use dreadful in a sentence
I guess the reason it needs a lot of chocolate is the actual cookie is rather dreadful.
Who makes the best chocolate chip cookie? We tasted 14 top brands and ranked them. | Matt Brooks | December 4, 2020 | Washington PostAs a glasses-noob suffering from the dreadful fog myself, I turned to the internet for answers.
The best ways to stop a mask from fogging up your glasses, ranked | Sandra Gutierrez G. | November 18, 2020 | Popular-ScienceShe is a threat to its isolation, its purity, and its unknowable and dreadful secrets.
Gothic novels are obsessed with borders. Mexican Gothic takes full advantage. | Constance Grady | October 16, 2020 | VoxIf there were to be any sort of silver lining to dreadful circumstances, this was it.
Toronto’s offense checks in just outside the top 10 for the full season, and it’s been dreadful during the restart.
The Raptors’ Defense Is Almost Never The Same, But It’s Always Really Good | Jared Dubin | August 17, 2020 | FiveThirtyEight
Is there a more dreadful sensation than that of your stomach wringing itself out like a washcloth?
He looked, that dreadful afternoon, as if he had just come from his barber, tailor and haberdasher.
The Stacks: H.L. Mencken on the 1904 Baltimore Fire | H.L. Mencken | October 4, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn the novel, the moral situation Frances ends up in is dreadful.
Sarah Waters: Queen of the Tortured Lesbian Romance | Tim Teeman | September 30, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTAny of the three on its own would have been dreadful enough.
American Statesmanship Is Depressingly MIA on Border Kids, MH17 & Gaza | Michael Tomasky | July 21, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThere are some hopeful elements in an otherwise dreadful day for human rights.
At the United Nations, It’s Human Rights, Putin-Style | Jay Michaelson | June 26, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThe conflict in Tom's puzzled heart sharpened that evening into dreadful edges that cut him mercilessly whichever way he turned.
The Wave | Algernon BlackwoodHe could not bear to open his dreadful situation to his Uncle David, nor to kill himself, nor to defy the vengeance of Longcluse.
Checkmate | Joseph Sheridan Le FanuAt other times they have a dreadful look of being fibs invented for the purpose of covering a fault.
Children's Ways | James SullyNevertheless, this world of mankind to-day seems to me to be a very sinister and dreadful world.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation | H. G. (Herbert George) WellsShe had wakened up in the night, and perceived with dreadful clearness that trouble lay in front of her.
Hilda Lessways | Arnold Bennett
British Dictionary definitions for dreadful
/ (ˈdrɛdfʊl) /
extremely disagreeable, shocking, or bad: what a dreadful play
(intensifier): this is a dreadful waste of time
causing dread; terrifying
archaic inspiring awe
Derived forms of dreadful
- dreadfulness, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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