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dire

adj
/ˈdaɪ̯ə(ɹ)/

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dīrus (“fearful, ominous”).

  1. borrowed from dīrus — “fearful, ominous”

Definitions

  1. Warning of bad consequences

    Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.

    • dire omens

  2. Requiring action to prevent bad consequences

    Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing.

    • dire need (of)

  3. Expressing bad consequences

    Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal.

    • dire consequences;  to be in dire straits
  4. ›+ 3 more definitions

    1. Bad in quality, awful, terrible.

      • His dire blunder allowed her to checkmate him with her next move.
      • And, of course, overlooking 1 ... Q-R8 mate, would be a dire mistake.
      • A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.

    2. Ferocious and of intimidating appearance, like a dire wolf.

    3. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

direful, direly, direness, dire sisters, diresome, dire straits, dire wolf, in dire straits

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at dire. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01dire02urgent03immediate04requiring05requirement06necessity07desperate

A definitional loop anchored at dire. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at dire

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA