DREADFUL • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Dreadful

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/drˈɛdfəl/ Listen

adjective

Dreadful adj.

Full of dread or terror; fearful. (Obs.) "With dreadful heart."

Inspiring dread; impressing great fear; fearful; terrible; as, a dreadful storm. " Dreadful gloom." "For all things are less dreadful than they seem."

Inspiring awe or reverence; awful. (Obs.) "God's dreadful law."

Synonyms: Fearful; frightful; terrific; terrible; horrible; horrid; formidable; tremendous; awful; venerable. See Frightful.

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Etymology of 'Dreadful'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dreadful" Quotes from Famous Books

... Habakkuk's description of a Babylonian army belongs to about this date, and is probably drawn from the life—"Lo, I raise up the Chaldaeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs. They are terrible and dreadful; from them shall proceed judgment and captivity; their horses are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves; and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly ...

— History of Phoenicia • George Rawlinson

... added to help it down and make it taste good, which it never did. The next standby was calomel; the next, rhubarb; and the next, jalap. Then they bled the patient, and put mustard-plasters on him. It was a dreadful system, and yet the death-rate was not heavy. The calomel was nearly sure to salivate the patient and cost him some of his teeth. There were no dentists. When teeth became touched with decay or were otherwise ailing, ...

— Chapters from My Autobiography • Mark Twain

... to consider that small dark kernel of doubt. It was of course dreadful to find that his people were so wholly corrupt, but that at least was understandable. What he did not understand was the reason they could be so easily weaned from their wickedness. It left him feeling a little off-balance, like a man who has hurled himself ...

— The Worshippers • Damon Francis Knight

... nothing but her beauty, his eyes were fixed on the mental vision of the charms which her enamoured husband had described to him. How he pitied this beautiful woman. What a misfortune to be chained to such a man. She wanted to run away, to take her own life? Oh, how dreadful for such a beautiful creature to be sick of life. That overbearing fellow, that scoundrel! Psia krew, why couldn't he die? ...

— Absolution • Clara Viebig

... manner in which poor people lived. A bare enough room, certainly, not even a bit of carpet laid before the bed, but it was a clean room. Floor and window and cupboard-door were as clean as water could make them; and the bed, while it looked hopelessly hard and dreadful to Mrs. Roberts, was really a pattern of neatness and purity to every dweller in that attic. There was a straw tick, covered with a dark calico spread, which did duty as a sheet, and the boy who lay on it was covered by a patched quilt that had ...

— Ester Ried Yet Speaking • Isabella Alden

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