DREAD • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Dread

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/drɛd/ Listen

noun

Dread n.

Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror. "The secret dread of divine displeasure." "The dread of something after death."

Reverential or respectful fear; awe. "The fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth." "His scepter shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings."

An object of terrified apprehension.

A person highly revered. (Obs.) "Una, his dear dread."

Fury; dreadfulness. (Obs.)

Doubt; as, out of dread. (Obs.)

Synonyms: Awe; fear; affright; terror; horror; dismay; apprehension. See Reverence.

verb

Dread v. t. (past & past part. dreaded; pres. part. dreading) To fear in a great degree; to regard, or look forward to, with terrific apprehension. "When at length the moment dreaded through so many years came close, the dark cloud passed away from Johnson's mind."

Dread v. i. To be in dread, or great fear. "Dread not, neither be afraid of them."

adjective

Dread adj.

Exciting great fear or apprehension; causing terror; frightful; dreadful. "A dread eternity! how surely mine."

Inspiring with reverential fear; awful' venerable; as, dread sovereign; dread majesty; dread tribunal.

See images of 'Dread'

Etymology of 'Dread'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Dread" Quotes from Famous Books

... one of olden time whose story has come ringing down the ages in the Book of Books. Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, a mighty man of valor and honorable in the sight of all men, turned away in a rage when Elisha, the prophet of the Most High, prescribed for his dread malady a remedy so simple that it was despised in his eyes. But "his servants came near and said ... 'If the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest ...

— How to Eat - A Cure for "Nerves" • Thomas Clark Hinkle

... indeed, the immediate objective point of active operations, and the issue, at arms, had been boldly made at Lexington and Concord. Bunker Hill had practically emancipated the American yeomanry from the dread of British arms, and foreshadowed the finality of National Independence. However the American Congress might temporize, there was not alternative with Washington, but a steady purpose to achieve complete freedom. From his arrival at Cambridge, until his ...

— The Bay State Monthly, Vol. 1, Issue 1. - A Massachusetts Magazine of Literature, History, - Biography, And State Progress • Various

... permit themselves—from idleness, also, or from a dread of being unable to achieve certain difficulties—to simplify their part. This race of simplifiers has existed for forty years; but it cannot endure any longer. In ancient works, the double-bass parts were extremely simple; therefore there can be no reason to impoverish them still more: those ...

— The Orchestral Conductor - Theory of His Art • Hector Berlioz

... through the quiet South Place with a leisurely grace and dignity at which my spirit rejoiced; she was so beautiful, and so easy, and afraid of nothing and nobody! (This must be modified. I came later to suspect that they all stood in some dread of their own ...

— Lady Baltimore • Owen Wister

... short of a deliberate untruth. His faults were those with which his father and mother had the least patience and sympathy, and those which needed a large share of both; had he ever received these, the faults would probably never have attained to such a growth, for he was in mortal dread of both parents, especially of his mother, and this, of course, had tended to foster ...

— Bessie Bradford's Prize • Joanna H. Mathews

More quotes...