Hypertext Webster Gateway: "awful"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Awful \Aw"ful\, a.
1. Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling; terrible; as,
an awful scene. ``The hour of Nature's awful throes.''
--Hemans.
2. Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence, or with
fear and admiration; fitted to inspire reverential fear;
profoundly impressive.
Heaven's awful Monarch. --Milton.
3. Struck or filled with awe; terror-stricken. [Obs.]
A weak and awful reverence for antiquity. --I.
Watts.
4. Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding. [Obs.]
Thrust from the company of awful men. --Shak.
5. Frightful; exceedingly bad; great; -- applied intensively;
as, an awful bonnet; an awful boaster. [Slang]
Syn: See {Frightful}.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (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 : (informal) used as intensifiers, as in "terribly
interesting"; "I'm awful sorry" [syn: {terribly}, {awfully},
{frightfully}]
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