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fearful

adj
/ˈfɪə(ɹ)fəl/UK/ˈfɪɹfəl/US/ˈfɜː(ɹ)fəl/

Etymology

From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear + -ful.

  1. inherited from ferful

Definitions

  1. Frightening

    Frightening; causing fear.

    • Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me, But let them hear what fearful words I utter.

  2. Tending to fear

    Tending to fear; timid.

    • a fearful boy

  3. Terrible

    Terrible; shockingly bad.

    • "What an awful infliction for you, Max. You were always such an impulsive, reckless sort of fellow—never quiet. You must miss such a fearful lot."
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. Frightened

      Frightened; filled with terror.

      • kings ſhall crouch vnto our conquering ſwords, And hoſtes of Souldiers ſtand amazd at vs, When with their fearfull tongues they ſhall confeſſe Theſe are the men that al the world admires,
      • Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessant payns […]

    2. Extremely

      Extremely; fearfully.

      • “He is fearful handsome, as you know,” she said remorsefully, “you cannot imagine, Georgiana, the joy when I first fell in love with him.”
      • “It's a fearful strong charm needs dragon's blood,” he said plaintively.
      • His Dardanelles expedition gave the Turk a fearful long start.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at fearful. 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.

01fearful02frightening03terrible04terror05intense06strong07power08coerce09intimidation

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

9 hops · closes at fearful

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