different between fearful vs direful
fearful
English
Alternative forms
- fearefull (obsolete)
- fearfull (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear +? -ful.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /?f??f?l/
- (General American) IPA(key): /?f??f?l/
- Rhymes: -???f?l
- Hyphenation: fear?ful
Adjective
fearful (comparative fearfuller or fearfuler or more fearful, superlative fearfullest or fearfulest or most fearful)
- Frightening.
- Tending to fear; timid.
- a fearful boy
- (dated) Terrible; shockingly bad.
- (now rare) Frightened; filled with terror.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:
- Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessant payns […]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:
Synonyms
- (frightened): frightened, timid, timorous
- See also Thesaurus:afraid and Thesaurus:cowardly
Translations
Adverb
fearful (comparative more fearful, superlative most fearful)
- (dialect) Extremely; fearfully.
Further reading
- fearful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- fearful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
Anagrams
- Lauffer
fearful From the web:
- what fearful means
- what fearfully and wonderfully made mean
- what fearful tidings did it contain
- what fearful hand or eye
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direful
English
Etymology
From dire +? -ful.
Adjective
direful (comparative more direful, superlative most direful)
- Fearful, terrible.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.11:
- read what destiny / Or other dyrefull hap from heaven or hell / Hath wrought this wicked deed […].
- 1603-06, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, I.2:
- "As whence the sun gins his reflection, shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break."
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.11:
Synonyms
- dire
Derived terms
- direfully
- direfulness
direful From the web:
- direful meaning
- what does direful
- what do direful mean
- what does direful synonym
- what does direful mean in english
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