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Fearful
Definitions
- 1 Frightening; causing fear.
"Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me, But let them hear what fearful words I utter."
- 2 Tending to fear; timid.
"a fearful boy"
- 3 Terrible; shockingly bad. dated
"But every day after dinner, for an hour, we were all together, and then the Favourite and the rest of the Royal Hareem competed who should most beguile the leisure of the Serene Haroun reposing from the cares of State — which were generally, as in most affairs of State, of an arithmetical character, the Commander of the Faithful being a fearful boggler at a sum."
- 4 Frightened; filled with terror. archaic
"kings ſhall crouch vnto our conquering ſwords, And hoſtes of Souldiers ſtand amazd at vs, When with their fearfull tongues they ſhall confeſſe Theſe are the men that al the world admires,"
- 1 experiencing or showing fear wordnet
- 2 causing fear or dread or terror wordnet
- 3 timid by nature or revealing timidity wordnet
- 4 lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted wordnet
- 5 extremely distressing wordnet
- 1 Extremely; fearfully. dialectal
"“He is fearful handsome, as you know,” she said remorsefully, “you cannot imagine, Georgiana, the joy when I first fell in love with him.”"
Etymology
From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear + -ful.
From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear + -ful.
See also for "fearful"
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