DREAD • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Dread

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noun

Dread n.

Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror. "The secret dread of divine displeasure." "The dread of something after death."

Reverential or respectful fear; awe. "The fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth." "His scepter shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings."

An object of terrified apprehension.

A person highly revered. (Obs.) "Una, his dear dread."

Fury; dreadfulness. (Obs.)

Doubt; as, out of dread. (Obs.)

Synonyms: Awe; fear; affright; terror; horror; dismay; apprehension. See Reverence.

verb

Dread v. t. (past & past part. dreaded; pres. part. dreading) To fear in a great degree; to regard, or look forward to, with terrific apprehension. "When at length the moment dreaded through so many years came close, the dark cloud passed away from Johnson's mind."

Dread v. i. To be in dread, or great fear. "Dread not, neither be afraid of them."

adjective

Dread adj.

Exciting great fear or apprehension; causing terror; frightful; dreadful. "A dread eternity! how surely mine."

Inspiring with reverential fear; awful' venerable; as, dread sovereign; dread majesty; dread tribunal.

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Etymology of 'Dread'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dread" Quotes from Famous Books

... elderly Englishman has not a wide appreciation of wines, nor loves new things in this kind more than in literature or life. But he tasted the Madeira, too, and underwent an ecstasy, which was only alleviated by the dread of gout, which he had an idea that this wine must bring on,— and truly, if it were so splendid a wine as he pronounced it, some pain ought to follow as the shadow of such ...

— Doctor Grimshawe's Secret - A Romance • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... so much about you from Bessie,' he said after a silence which seemed long to both. 'Her letters for the last twelve months have been a perpetual paean—like one of the Homeric hymns, with you for the heroine. I had quite a dread of meeting you, feeling that, after having my expectations strung up to such a pitch, I must be disappointed. Nothing human ...

— The Golden Calf • M. E. Braddon

... whatever Mr Maxwell might seem to lack as to social qualities, he was a preacher. All agreed that his sermons were wonderful. It was the elaborately prepared discourses of his seminary days, that the young man moved by a vague, but awful dread of breaking down, gave to his people first. It was well that the learned professor's opinion of them and of their author had come to Gershom before him. There could be no doubt as to the sermons after that testimony, so it was no uncertain sound that went ...

— David Fleming's Forgiveness • Margaret Murray Robertson

... comparatively recently has it been suggested that the flesh of these taboo animals was unwholesome. In the eighteenth century, philosophers propagated the erroneous notion that if certain religious legislators had forbidden various aliments, it was for hygienic motives. Even Renan believed that dread of trichinosis and leprosy had caused the Hebrews to forbid the use of pork. To show the irrational nature of this explanation, it will be enough to point out that in the whole of the Bible there is not ...

— The Necessity of Atheism • Dr. D.M. Brooks

... swift feeling of dread, there passed before him the terrible life of the Trappists; the body ill-nourished, exhausted from want of sleep, prostrate for hours on the pavement; the soul trembling, squeezed like a sponge in the hand, drilled, examined, ransacked even to its smallest folds; ...

— En Route • J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans

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