I. ˈdredfəl adjective
Etymology: Middle English dredful, from drede, dred + -ful
1.
a. : full of dread or terror : fearful
b. obsolete : full of reverence or awe
2.
a. : inspiring dread : causing great fear : frightening
a dreadful storm
that snake provided me with one of the most dreadful experiences of my life — Jack McLaren
b. : inspiring awe or reverence
out from the portico there gleamed a god, Apollon … all his shape one dreadful beauty — Robert Browning
3.
a. : exciting repugnance or loathing : revolting , horrible
no more dreadful horror through the whole story than the bloody sack of Limoges — H.O.Taylor
the dreadful theory that if a teacher has studied education, he does not have to have a real mastery of the subject he is teaching — Oliver La Farge
b. : arousing great pity or sympathy : tragic
when she's alone and humiliated and broken it would be dreadful if she had nowhere to go — W.S.Maugham
c. : arousing feelings of disapproval or dissatisfaction: as
(1) : of poor quality
a dreadful road
dreadful acoustics
(2) : socially unacceptable : unrefined
to prevent her marrying dreadful people — Edith Wharton
(3) : offensive to good taste
dreadful furniture
a dreadful sight in her country clothes — R.H.Sampson
d. : unpleasant to experience, remember, or contemplate
the dreadful conclusion that the date 1869 … marks definitely the hour at which Latin … became a dead language — A.T.Quiller-Couch
4. : extreme : very great
a lady in a long skirt … was making dreadful havoc with the standing grass — F.M.Ford
boats and tackle were in dreadful disrepair — Arthur Rucker
Synonyms: see fearful
II. adverb
chiefly North : very , extremely
dreadful sick
a dreadful good man
III. noun
( -s )
: a cheap and sensational story or periodical ; especially : a story of crime or desperadoes such as was popular in late Victorian England
a shilling dreadful
— compare dime novel , shocker