Definition of "dreadful"

Full of something causing dread, whether

1. Genuinely horrific, awful, or alarming; dangerous, risky.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • "...Aunt Em will surely think something dreadful has happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning..."

     1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, chapter 23, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M. Hill Co.

2. (hyperbolic) Unpleasant, awful, very bad (also used as an intensifier).  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Here some... Look dreadful gay in their own sparkling blood.

     1682, T. Creech's translation of Lucretius, De Natura Rerum, Book II, 52

   • This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.

     1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company

   • After a dreadful performance in the opening 45 minutes, they upped their game after the break...

     2011 December 10, Marc Higginson, “Bolton 1-2 Aston Villa”, in BBC Sport

3. (obsolete) Awesome, awe-inspiring, causing feelings of reverence.

(obsolete) Full of dread, whether

1. Scared, afraid, frightened.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Shame to the slothful and woe to the weak one.Death to the dreadful who turn to flee.Blood to the tearing, the talon’d, the beaked one.Timor Mortis are We.

     1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter VIII, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, book I (The Sword in the Stone)

2. Timid, easily frightened.  examples

3. Reverential, full of pious awe.  examples

(informal) Dreadfully.  quotations  examples

A shocker: a report of a crime written in a provokingly lurid style.  examples

A journal or broadsheet printing such reports.  examples

A shocking or sensational crime.  examples