frightfully
Britishadverb
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.
"I don't think I was desperate to find somebody. I certainly hope not. I was frightfully busy with work."
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
"He had black crew-cut hair and National Health glasses and was frightfully shy and very poor... I started selling the odd drawing on his behalf for seven or eight pounds."
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
The sounds, those seductively embracing and those frightfully howling in the wind, became an acknowledged life in all its strangeness, the animal kingdom as counselor to our uncertainties, indulgences and differences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 28, 2025
That meant if lots of layoffs were happening or if the stock market was tumbling too frightfully, the Fed could cut interest rates down to zero.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 2, 2023
“It’s too close upstairs and frightfully hot in the day.”
From "Fever 1793" by Laurie Halse Anderson
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.
