AWFUL • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Awful

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/ˈɑfəl/ /ˈɔfəl/ Listen

Awful

adjective

1.

Exceptionally bad or displeasing. Synonyms: abominable, atrocious, dreadful, painful, terrible, unspeakable. "Abominable workmanship" , "An awful voice" , "Dreadful manners" , "A painful performance" , "Terrible handwriting" , "An unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room"

2.

Causing fear or dread or terror. Synonyms: dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terrible. "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" , "A fearful howling" , "Horrendous explosions shook the city" , "A terrible curse"

3.

Offensive or even (of persons) malicious. Synonym: nasty. "A nasty accident" , "A nasty shock" , "A nasty smell" , "A nasty trick to pull" , "Will he say nasty things at my funeral?"

4.

Inspired by a feeling of fearful wonderment or reverence. Synonym: awed. "Awful worshippers with bowed heads"

5.

Extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact. Synonyms: frightful, terrible, tremendous. "Spent a frightful amount of money"

6.

Inspiring awe or admiration or wonder. Synonyms: amazing, awe-inspiring, awesome, awing. "The Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring sight" , "The awesome complexity of the universe" , "This sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath" , "Westminster Hall's awing majesty, so vast, so high, so silent"

adverb

1.

Used as intensifiers. Synonyms: awfully, frightfully, terribly. "I'm awful sorry"

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Awful" Quotes from Famous Books

... the city and upon the nation. Thousands upon thousands repented and accepted the Gospel; in fact, the beginning of the entire Church was Jewish. But the nation hardened its heart, and finally the tears which the Lord had shed over Jerusalem were justified in the awful siege of Jerusalem, followed by the dispersion of the nation. Ever since they have been in fulfillment of the predictions of their own prophets, scattered amongst the nations of the world, and this is continuing throughout ...

— Studies in Prophecy • Arno C. Gaebelein

... ocean, infinitely changing, Clasping the world and all its gorgeous state, Unfathomed by the intellect's wide ranging, Is awful like the form of ...

— Translations of Shakuntala and Other Works • Kaalidaasa

... rest on the line of battle, so exhausted that they could not be awakened to eat their rations; as the blood cooled and the tension on the nerves relaxed, and even the officers, faint with hunger and sickened with the awful slaughter, looked forward with apprehension to the morrow, from one indomitable heart the hope of victory had not yet vanished. In the deep silence of the night, more oppressive than the stunning roar of battle, Lee, still mounted, stood ...

— Stonewall Jackson And The American Civil War • G. F. R. Henderson

... was looking extremely forlorn. "Suppose Mrs. Curtis has forgotten our frocks!" she suggested tragically, as Madge came back with her report of the house's decorations. "She has had such an awful lot to attend to that she may not have remembered that she offered to give us our frocks. Won't it be dreadful if Madeleine has to be married without our being ...

— Madge Morton's Victory • Amy D.V. Chalmers

... November comes, and everything freezes up stiff and dead except white bears And Ingens, and there's no daylight left to speak of, and you 'll be sick enough of your choice. You won't live the winter out; and it 's an awful place to die in, where the ground freezes so hard ...

— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

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