Meaning of dreadful in English
Table of contents
Classifying Adjective
dreadfulDefinitions
1. causing fear or dread or terrorExamples
- « the awful war »
- « an awful risk »
- « dire news »
- « a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked »
- « the dread presence of the headmaster »
- « polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was »
- « a dreadful storm »
- « »
Synonyms
- 2. exceptionally bad or displeasing
Examples
- « atrocious taste »
- « abominable workmanship »
- « an awful voice »
- « dreadful manners »
- « a painful performance »
- « terrible handwriting »
- « an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room »
Synonyms
- 3. very unpleasant
Synonyms
Famous quotes
- « To me, it seems a dreadful indignity to have a soul controlled by geography. » George Santayana
- « How dreadful knowledge of the truth can be when there's no help in the truth. » Sophocles
- « Ah, mon cher, for anyone who is alone, without God and without a master, the weight of days is dreadful. » Albert Camus
- « I wanted to highlight that whole dreadful process in book publishing that 'nothing succeeds like success.' » Doris Lessing
- « Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on its delight is murder, and its end is despair. » Friedrich Schiller