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.
After a frightfully cold spell, a return to milder temperatures can cause previously frozen pipes to burst.
From BBC • Jan. 4, 2026
And it is fantasy to try to divorce sports from the times we live in and the events that unfold, sometimes frightfully, beyond the comfortable confines of the stadium and arena.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 25, 2025
A frightfully realistic-appearing Godzilla crashes into fleeing screaming crowds, its giant tail sweeping buildings in a flash, its bumpy skin glowing like irradiated embers, its growl getting right up into your face.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 2, 2023
He looks frightfully self-conscious, not so much like a man wearing uncomfortable wool or cotton but one who realizes he’s wearing the emperor’s clothes.
From Washington Post • Jan. 24, 2023
It sucks everything around it out of time and space and into—well, I don’t know, Your Maj, because I was never frightfully good at science, but, you know, the Great Nothing or some such.
From "The Assassination of Brangwain Spurge" by M.T. Anderson and Eugene Yelchin
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.
