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# dreadful

«dreadful» in Mova's school dictionary: **Very bad or unpleasant** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

adjective

### meaning for a pupil

1) Very bad or unpleasant. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#m1)

2) Causing fear or great shock; terrible. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#m2)

3) (informal) Used to make something stronger: a dreadful mess. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday British talk «dreadful» is a common word for bad weather, food or behaviour; in stories it describes frightening events; phrases: «a dreadful mistake», «I feel dreadful», «dreadful weather», «the dreadful news».

### examples

- The weather was dreadful, so sports day was cancelled. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#x1)
- I made a dreadful mistake on my test. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#x2)
- There was a dreadful accident on the motorway. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#x3)
- «What a dreadful thing to say!» gasped Grandma. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#x4)
- I feel dreadful; I think I have flu. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#x5)
- The food at the café was dreadful. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#x6)
- The dreadful storm blew trees down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#x7)
- This was a very dreadful disaster. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/#x8)

### note

Adverb: dreadfully (often means «very»: «dreadfully sorry»). Spelled with -ful (one l). Similar: awful, terrible, horrible. From dread (great fear).

### In the corpora

- [Alice mutters "It's really dreadful, the way all the creatures argue.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/11-alice-ch6-part1-pig-and-pepper/16/)
- [The adventures first: explanations take such a dreadful time.»](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/20-alice-the-lobster-quadrille-2/14/)
- [As whirlwinds in the South sweeping on, it cometh from the wilderness, from a dreadful land.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/ISA.417/)
- [As for their rings, they were high and they were dreadful; and they four had their rings full of eyes round about.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/EZK.18/)
- [They are terrible and dreadful; their law and their majesty proceed from themselves.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/neviim/jps/HAB.8/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «dreadful» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/dreadful/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.