awful
EnglishEdit
Alternative formsEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, aȝefull, equivalent to awe + -ful. Compare Old English eġeful, eġefull (“terrifying; awful”).
PronunciationEdit
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈɔːfʊl/, /ˈɔːfəl/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɔfəl/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /ˈɑfəl/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɔːfʊl
- Homophone: offal (some accents)
AdjectiveEdit
awful (comparative awfuller or more awful, superlative awfullest or most awful)
- Very bad.
- My socks smell awful.
- We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.
- Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
- an awful bonnet
- I have learnt an awful amount today.
- (now dated) Causing fear or horror; appalling, terrible.
- 1839, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalken the Painter
- There was an air of gravity and importance about the garb of the person, and something indescribably odd, I might say awful, in the perfect, stonelike stillness of the figure, that effectually checked the testy comment which had at once risen to the lips of the irritated artist.
- 1839, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalken the Painter
- (now rare) Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
- 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
- God ought not to be commixed in our actions, but with awful reverence, and an attention full of honour and respect.
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.143:
- And then she stopped, and stood as if in awe / (For sleep is awful) […].
- (now rare) Struck or filled with awe.
- (obsolete) Terror-stricken.
- Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding.
SynonymsEdit
- See also Thesaurus:frightening
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
very bad
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exceedingly great
causing fear; appalling; terrible
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inspiring awe
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struck or filled with awe
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terror-stricken — see terrorstricken
worshipful; reverential; law-abiding
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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AdverbEdit
awful (not comparable)
- (colloquial) Awfully; dreadfully; terribly.
- 1933 January 21, The Sydney Sportsman, page 1:
- The race was run, and the dog ran "awful".
- (colloquial, US, Canada) Very, extremely.
- That's an awful big house.
- She seemed awful nice when I met her yesterday.
- He was blubbering away something awful.
TranslationsEdit
colloquial: very, extremely
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See alsoEdit
Further readingEdit
- awful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- awful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.