Awful

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Awful \Aw"ful\, a.
     1. Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling; terrible; as,
        an awful scene. "The hour of Nature's awful throes."
        --Hemans.
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     2. Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence, or with
        fear and admiration; fitted to inspire reverential fear;
        profoundly impressive.
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              Heaven's awful Monarch.               --Milton.
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     3. Struck or filled with awe; terror-stricken. [Obs.]
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              A weak and awful reverence for antiquity. --I.
                                                    Watts.
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     4. Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding. [Obs.]
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              Thrust from the company of awful men. --Shak.
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     5. Frightful; exceedingly bad; great; -- applied intensively;
        as, an awful bonnet; an awful boaster. [Slang]
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     Syn: See {Frightful}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  awful
       adj 1: exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste";
              "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful
              manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible
              handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into
              the room" [syn: {atrocious}, {abominable}, {dreadful},
               {painful}, {terrible}, {unspeakable}]
       2: causing fear or dread or terror; "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"; "a fearful howling";
          "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse"
          [syn: {dire}, {direful}, {dread(a)}, {dreaded}, {dreadful},
           {fearful}, {fearsome}, {frightening}, {horrendous}, {horrific},
           {terrible}]
       3: offensive or even (of persons) malicious; "in a nasty mood";
          "a nasty accident"; "a nasty shock"; "a nasty smell"; "a
          nasty trick to pull"; "Will he say nasty things at my
          funeral?"- Ezra Pound [syn: {nasty}] [ant: {nice}]
       4: inspired by a feeling of fearful wonderment or reverence;
          "awed by the silence"; "awful worshippers with bowed
          heads" [syn: {awed}]
       5: inspiring awe or admiration or wonder; "New York is an
          amazing city"; "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"- Melville; "Westminster Hall's awing
          majesty, so vast, so high, so silent" [syn: {amazing}, {awe-inspiring},
           {awesome}, {awing}]
       adv : used as intensifiers; "terribly interesting"; "I'm awful
             sorry" [syn: {terribly}, {awfully}, {frightfully}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  193 Moby Thesaurus words for "awful":
     Babylonian, Corinthian, abominable, appalling, arrant, astounding,
     atrocious, august, awe-inspiring, awesome, awfully, awing, bad,
     baneful, barbaric, base, beastly, beneath contempt, big, bizarre,
     blameworthy, brutal, contemptible, crazy, damned, deadly, deluxe,
     deplorable, despicable, detestable, dire, direful, disgusting,
     divine, dread, dreaded, dreadful, eerie, egregious, elaborate,
     elegant, enormous, estimable, execrable, extravagant, extremely,
     fancy, fearful, fell, fetid, filthy, fine, flagrant, forbidding,
     formidable, foul, frightful, fulsome, ghastly, ghoulish, glorious,
     grand, grandiose, grave, greatly, grievous, grim, grisly, gross,
     grotesque, gruesome, hateful, heavenly, heinous, hideous, holy,
     honorable, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying,
     howling, hugely, imposing, impressive, ineffable, inenarrable,
     inexpressible, infamous, inferior, inviolable, inviolate,
     lamentable, loathsome, lousy, luxurious, macabre, magnificent,
     majestic, monstrous, morbid, mortally, moving, much, mysterious,
     nasty, nefarious, noble, noisome, notorious, numinous, obnoxious,
     odious, offensive, ominous, outrageous, palatial, pitiable,
     pitiful, plush, portentous, posh, princely, proud, rank,
     redoubtable, regrettable, religious, repelling, reprehensible,
     repugnant, repulsive, reverend, revolting, ritzy, rotten, rousing,
     sacred, sacrosanct, sad, scandalous, schlock, schrecklich, scurvy,
     serious, shabby, shameful, shocking, shoddy, solemn, sordid,
     spiritual, splendacious, splendid, splendiferous, squalid, stately,
     sumptuous, superb, superfancy, superfine, swank, swanky, swell,
     tasteless, terrible, terribly, terrific, thumping, time-honored,
     too bad, tragic, tremendous, ugly, uncanny, unclean, unpleasant,
     unsightly, unspeakable, untouchable, unutterable, venerable, vile,
     villainous, weird, whacking, whopping, woeful, worshipful, worst,
     worthless, wretched