awful
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɔːfl̩/
ipa: [ˈɔːfl̩]
ipa: /ˈɔfl̩/
ipa: /ˈɑfl̩/
rhymes: -ɔːfʊl
homophone: offal (cot–caught merger)
Forms: form: awfuller
form: more awful
form: awfullest
form: most awful
form: awfull
form: aweful
form: awefull
Etymology: From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, aȝefull, equivalent to awe + -ful. Compare Old English eġeful, eġefull (“terrifying; awful”).
The “very bad” sense is a pejorative semantic shift from the original sense of “awe-inspiring”.
Senses: examples: text: The smell of my socks is awful.
text: We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.
glosses: Very bad.
examples: text: an awful bonnet
text: I have learnt an awful amount today.
text: Shepard: You seem to know an awful lot about me.
Geth: Extranet data sources. Insecure broadcasts. All organic data sent out is received. We watch you.
ref: 2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2 AI Core Room:
glosses: Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
examples: text: There was an air of gravity and importance about the garb of the person, and something indescribably odd, I might say awful, in the perfect, stonelike stillness of the figure, that effectually checked the testy comment which had at once risen to the lips of the irritated artist.
ref: 1839, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalken the Painter:
text: At our old pastimes in the hall
⁠We gambol’d, making vain pretence
⁠Of gladness, with an awful sense
Of one mute Shadow watching all.
ref: 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 48:
glosses: Causing fear or horror; appalling, terrible.
examples: text: As I am seen could I but gaze on Thee / Awful in majesty and royal might
ref: 1889, Harriet McEwen Kimball, Poems, "Omniscience":
text: God ought not to be commixed in our actions, but with awful reverence, and an attention full of honour and respect.
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: And then she stopped, and stood as if in awe / (For sleep is awful)[…].
ref: 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.143:
text: If the keepers of the sacred corral discovered paternity in their stock breeding, then that knowledge would have been seen as numinous, awe-ful, and unconsciously unsettling.
ref: 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 124:
related: word: awe-ful
word: awe-full
glosses: Awe-inspiring; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
examples: text: She spoke about Mr. Pendennis (a worthy little gentleman enough, but there are others as good as he) with an awful reverence, as if he had been the Pope of Rome on his throne, and she a cardinal kneeling at his feet, and giving him incense.
ref: 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
glosses: Struck or filled with awe or reverence.
glosses: Terror-stricken.
Derived terms: awfulization
awfulize
awfully
awfulness
god-awful
goshawful
gosh-awful
overawful
shitawful
something awful