Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Causing disgust or shock; horrifying.
- adjective Causing fright; terrifying.
- adjective Excessive; extreme.
- adjective Disagreeable; distressing.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Full of occasion for fright; causing or apt to excite alarm or terror; terrible; dreadful: as, a frightful chasm; a frightful tempest.
- Intolerable; shocking; hideous.
- Full of terror; fearful; alarmed.
- Synonyms Dreadful, Fearful, etc. (see
awful ); alarming, terrific, horrible, shocking.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective obsolete Full of fright; affrighted; frightened.
- adjective Full of that which causes fright; exciting alarm; impressing terror; shocking.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective obsolete : Full of fright; affrighted; frightened.
- adjective Full of that which causes fright; exciting alarm; impressing terror; shocking; as, a frightful chasm, or tempest; a frightful appearance.
- adjective Used as an intensifier
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact
- adjective provoking horror
- adjective extremely distressing
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Costumed Tastoanes in frightful masks battle Saint James in a ritual dance each year on July 25th.
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His eyes were bright and glassy, and their expression frightful to look upon.
Strange Visitors Henry J. Horn
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Some are suspended to the vaulted roof by chains, and in frightful-looking positions; others are on the perpendicular walls.
The Romance of Isabel, Lady Burton William Henry Burton Wilkins 1897
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Had a revolutionary change not taken place in our country, our situation now and in the years ahead would have been terrible, and we can understand perfectly that the situation in the years ahead will be terrible in countries which still find themselves in the situation Cuba was in, and even worse: millions of illiterates, a lack of technicians, a shortage of schools, a scarcity of educational and health facilities -- in short, frightful conditions that are well known to Cubans who were familiar with our own past here in all its aspects.
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We've seen some pretty middling horrible things already, and if these two men of ours call the frightful things we have seen normal, and are planning on deliberately hunting up things that even they will consider monstrous, you and I most certainly shall stay at home! "
Skylark Three Hans Waldemar Wessolowski 1927
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M. Anciot, and describes as a frightful old hunchback.
Les Miserables 2008
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Van Helsing had not intended to recall her frightful experience.
Dracula 2003
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No one who recalls the frightful provisions of the penal acts of
Report of Commemorative Services with the Sermons and Addresses at the Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885. Diocese Of Connecticut
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Do not we who go about our business in the brilliance of the morning sometimes linger to recall the frightful setting of the sun?
The Birth of Yugoslavia, Volume 1 Henry Baerlein 1917
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Only too clearly he remembered the first time he and Beatrice had been thrust into this weird community, bound and captive; with only too vivid distinctness he recalled the frightful indignities, perils and hardships inflicted on them.
Darkness and Dawn George Allan England 1906
bilby commented on the word frightful
"Angelica, finding herself alone, abandoned in this frightful solitude, remained without movement, as if stupefied, with hands joined and eyes turned towards heaven, till at last, pouring forth a torrent of tears, she exclaimed: 'Cruel fortune, have you not yet exhausted your rage against me?'"
- Thomas Bulfinch, 'Age of Fable'.
September 19, 2009