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Dreadful   Listen
adjective
Dreadful  adj.  
1.
Full of dread or terror; fearful. (Obs.) "With dreadful heart."
2.
Inspiring dread; impressing great fear; fearful; terrible; as, a dreadful storm. " Dreadful gloom." "For all things are less dreadful than they seem."
3.
Inspiring awe or reverence; awful. (Obs.) "God's dreadful law."
Synonyms: Fearful; frightful; terrific; terrible; horrible; horrid; formidable; tremendous; awful; venerable. See Frightful.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Dreadful" Quotes from Famous Books



... thou, the great, the dreadful, the eternal God. These words, therefore, as I have already said, signify that Christ the Mediator, through whom alone salvation comes, and by whom alone execution hath been deferred, now giveth up the soul, forbears to speak one syllable more for him, or to do the least act of grace ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... down With a dreadful frown, Because matters of state have gone wrong, Until at last, From his head so vast, His ideas ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 2 • Various

... interests which are vital in character. A just war is in the long run far better for a nation's soul than the most prosperous peace obtained by acquiescence in wrong or injustice. Moreover, though it is criminal for a nation not to prepare for war, so that it may escape the dreadful consequences of being defeated in war, yet it must always be remembered that even to be defeated in war may be far better than not to have fought at all. As has been well and finely said, a beaten nation is not necessarily a disgraced nation; but the nation or man is disgraced ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... the streets attired like monks, and some like kings, Accompanied with pomp, and guard, and other stately things. Some like wild beasts do run abroad in skins that divers be Arrayed, and eke with loathsome shapes, that dreadful are to see, They counterfeit both bears and wolves, and lions fierce in sight, And raging bulls; some play the cranes, with ...
— Old English Sports • Peter Hampson Ditchfield

... Philip could not help a shudder, as he listened to the cynical, callous manner in which his companion spoke of their proximity to a dreadful death. Then, bidding him follow, he went on along the gloomy maze towards where he could hear the rumble of trucks laden with coal, the sound of the ringing picks, the echoing shouts of the men, and the impatient snort ...
— Son Philip • George Manville Fenn

... of wings, she had two little feathery arms, with which she fanned herself, and complained of the dreadful heat; and she kept on crooning an old song to herself, which she learnt when she was a ...
— The Water-Babies - A Fairy Tale for a Land-Baby • Charles Kingsley

... in the morning we again set off, and, as much rain had fell in the night, the roads were in a dreadful state. The coach company now consisted of nine passengers inside, one on the top, (which, from its convex form, is a very precarious situation,) and three on the box, besides the coachman, who sat on the knees of the unfortunate ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, - Issue 268, August 11, 1827 • Various

... slingers, and clubs and spears with which to supply the warriors. Soon after we arrived, the attack was made with great fury. There was no science displayed. The two bodies of savages rushed headlong upon each other and engaged in a general melee, and a more dreadful set of men I have never seen. They wore grotesque war-caps made of various substances and decorated with feathers. Their faces and bodies were painted so as to make them look as frightful as possible; and as they brandished ...
— The Coral Island - A Tale Of The Pacific Ocean • R. M. Ballantyne

... ceasing. The servant of God with great prudence first sent one of his companions to see and hear her, to examine into the case, to see whether it was really one of possession, or whether the woman was not counterfeiting. She gnashed her teeth,—she imitated the cry of an elephant with a dreadful countenance; she affected to laugh when she saw the religious, and ordered him to go away, saying that she did not care about him, but she was afraid of him who hid himself. The Saint, who was in prayer, having heard this, came into the room, where this woman was speaking without any ...
— The Life and Legends of Saint Francis of Assisi • Father Candide Chalippe

... sternly that it sent McNutt into an ague of terror. He fumbled for the smallest bill, tremblingly placed it in Mr. Merrick's hand, and then with a thrill of despair realized he had presented the dreadful ...
— Aunt Jane's Nieces at Millville • Edith Van Dyne

... dark shadows fall athwart our hopes. Often in sleep the prince will start and cry As if in pain, 'O world, sad world, I come!' But roused, he'll sometimes sit the livelong day, Forgetting teachers, sports and even food, As if with dreadful visions overwhelmed, Or buried in great thoughts profound and deep. But yet to see our people, riding forth, To their acclaims he answers with such grace And gentle stateliness, my heart would swell As I would hear the people to each other say; ...
— The Dawn and the Day • Henry Thayer Niles

... Philander. "I—er—I don't want any job! Oh, this is dreadful, horrible! It's one of Tom Rover's jokes! I might have known it. Sent me all the way to Ashton to try to get a position in a horrid moving picture show! Oh, this is the worst ever!" And looking the picture ...
— The Rover Boys in Alaska - or Lost in the Fields of Ice • Arthur M. Winfield

... nearly in the same state for some days. On the 1st of May he was delirious nearly all day, and suffered dreadful vomitings. He took two small biscuits and a few drops of red wine. On the 2d he was rather quieter, and the alarming symptoms diminished a little. At 2 P.M., however, he had a paroxysm of fever, and became ...
— Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, Complete • Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne

... is so dreadful. The responsibility of all those dear fatherless boys, and if—if I ...
— The Clever Woman of the Family • Charlotte M. Yonge

... last words. As he proceeded with his narration, he grew more and more excited. It seemed as if his imagination had got hold of him, and he ended in a perfect paroxysm of fear—white-faced, perspiring, trembling and looking round him, as if expecting that some dreadful presence would manifest itself there in the bright sunshine on the open plain. Finally, in an ...
— Dracula's Guest • Bram Stoker

... Kate could receive the dreadful conviction of the truth. There was the note. Could she mistake the handwriting? The bearer, too, had said that Meynell was gone; and the distant, chilling tone—and no mention made of his return—and the news of her sudden poverty! None but a woman that loved with ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 62, Number 385. November, 1847. • Various

... spirits, congratulating himself upon the eminent service he had done to the city of Hereford, by his sagacity in discovering the foreign plot to blow up the cathedral, and by his dexterity in having the enemy held in custody, at the very hour when the dreadful deed was to have been perpetrated. Mr. Hill's knowing friends farther agreed it would be necessary to have a guard that should sit up every night in the churchyard; and that as soon as they could, by constantly watching the enemy's motions, procure any information ...
— Tales & Novels, Vol. 2 • Maria Edgeworth

... acrimonious debate in both houses of Congress and during a session of extraordinary length, the compromise measures of Clay were substantially passed,—a truce rather than a peace, which put off the dreadful issue for eleven years longer. It was the best thing to do, for the South was in deadly earnest, exceedingly exasperated, and blinded. A war in 1851 would have had uncertain issues, with such a man as Fillmore in the presidential chair, to which he had succeeded on the death of Taylor. He was ...
— Beacon Lights of History, Volume XII • John Lord

... very dreadful and very disagreeable," said Lady Garvington in her weak and inconsequent way. "I'm sure I was always nice to Hubert and he might have left me a few shillings to get clothes. Everything goes in cooks and ...
— Red Money • Fergus Hume

... words. "I have the right to make of my life what I can." But when she beheld the road of terrors that stretched between her and the shining places, it seemed as though she would never have the courage to fare forth along its way. To look back was to survey a prospect even more dreadful. ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... him, and committing him to the Tower. All that was done, however, was to agree to a resolution, "That when the present tumults were subsided, they would take into consideration the petitions from many of his majesty's Protestant subjects." This had been no sooner done than dreadful news arrived from the city, and the house adjourned in haste and confusion. The mob had proceeded from St. Martin's-street, where the house of the magistrate which they had demolished was situate, to Newgate, declaring that ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... to bring Mr. Brandon into the nursery! You are a dreadful girl! I must tell Miss Melville ...
— Mr. Hogarth's Will • Catherine Helen Spence

... the milkman, and now I've got your letter, though Snuffy read it first. Jem and I cry dreadful in bed. That's the comfort of being together. I'll try and be as good as I can, but you don't know what this place is. It's very different to the farm. Do you remember the row about that book Horace Simpson got? I wish you could see the books the boys have ...
— We and the World, Part I - A Book for Boys • Juliana Horatia Ewing

... added, "how we all have that belief when we are children that the world is going to burn up! I don't suppose any child escapes it. Do you remember that poem of Thompson's—the City of Dreadful Night man—where he describes the end ...
— Henry James, Jr. • William Dean Howells

... at first they sound very dreadful and very wrong, are only Miltonic-Gibbonian expressions of the general fact that the Frankish Kings had ploughmen in their fields, employed weavers and smiths to make their robes and swords, hunted with ...
— Our Fathers Have Told Us - Part I. The Bible of Amiens • John Ruskin

... sacrifice." Thus said those high-souled Rishis and Yatis conversant with the truths of all things, having ascertained by their ascetic power that king Nahusha had not been intentionally guilty of that sin.[1164] These, O Jajali, are some of the wicked and dreadful practices that are current in this world. Thou practisest them because they are practised by all men from ancient times, and not because they agree with the dictates of thy cleansed understanding. One should practise what one considers to be one's ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 3 - Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 • Unknown

... lunatic who believes that all crime is the effect of laws forbidding it—as the pig that breaks into the kitchen garden is created by the dog that chews its ear! The Anarchist favors abolition of all law and frequently belongs to an organization that secures his allegiance by solemn oaths and dreadful penalties. "Nihilism" is a name given by Turgenieff to the general body of Russian discontent which finds expression in antagonizing authority and killing authorities. Constructive politics would seem, as yet, to be a cut ...
— The Shadow On The Dial, and Other Essays - 1909 • Ambrose Bierce

... with a firm step high and dry above the surge, heard all about them the dreadful whistling of the blast; great billows broke across their path, but an irresistible force cleft a way for them through the sea. These believing ones saw through the spray a dim speck of light flickering in the window of ...
— Christ in Flanders • Honore de Balzac

... those home endearments, which were to her the true occupation and charm of life, there cannot exist a doubt. Misfortune fell upon her house to strengthen her love and to confirm her piety. Persecution, imprisonment, calamity that has never been surpassed, and a dreadful end, which, in its bitterness, has seldom been equalled, found and left her, a meek but perfect heroine. One historian has told us, that as 'an affectionate daughter and a faithful wife, she preserved in the two most corrupted courts ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 1, April, 1851 • Various

... to sow them, which they vsually sowe with thread made of sinewes, for they diuide sinewes into slender threads, and then twine them into one long thread. They make sandals and socks and other garments. Howbeit they neuer wash any apparel: for they say that God is then angry, and that dreadful thunder wil ensue, if washed garments be hanged forth to drie: yea, they beat such as wash and take their garments from them. They are wonderfully afraid of thunder: for in the time of thunder they thrust all strangers, out of their houses, and then wrapping themselues in black felt, they lie ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries - Vol. II • Richard Hakluyt

... the immense red face of the just risen sun dazzles his eyes. Is it the bloody Heart of God he sees pulsating through the universe? Blinded for a moment, he staggers on at random, when suddenly he sees the floor is red with blood. The dreadful phantoms of the night are again around him, no longer floating in misty visions, but glaring fixed before him in the stern light of dread reality. In the fierce blaze of its pitiless rays, he sees the dead body of his brother's ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 5, May, 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... Steer, the Bridge, and the Bull, they hung yet a while longer on the hills' brow, their banners floating over them and their horns blowing; and the Dusky Felons in the Market- place beheld them, and fear and rage at once filled their hearts, and a fierce and dreadful yell brake out from them, and joyously did the Men of Burgdale answer them, and song arose amongst ...
— The Roots of the Mountains • William Morris

... Balzac, especially in those "editions de luxe" with dreadful interpretative prefaces by English professors, are odious to me. They seem the sort of thing one expects to find under glass-cases in the houses of cultured financiers. They are admirably adapted for wedding presents. And they have illustrations! That is really ...
— Suspended Judgments - Essays on Books and Sensations • John Cowper Powys

... civilization are, in an economical sense, so isolated from each other that the welfare of the population is nearly always absolutely dependent on the irregular: and apparently capricious bounty of nature. For the three years following the dreadful misery above described, harvests of unprecedented abundance were gathered in. Yet how inadequate they were to repair the fearful damage wrought by six months of starvation, the history of the next quarter of a century too plainly reveals. "Plenty had indeed ...
— The Unseen World and Other Essays • John Fiske

... than he's been," the nurse said, drawing them a little way from the bed. "The delirium was just dreadful to see! But that's past, and we only want him to rally. He's about exhausted now, and must be kept quiet. I would not like him to open his eyes and find you by his side. By my will you would not have ...
— Little Folks (December 1884) - A Magazine for the Young • Various

... of the habitans appeared to be given to the cultivation of the sugar cane and maize, both of which had begun to produce an abundant return to the planters; the manihot is also generally cultivated: but the dreadful effects of the hurricanes to which this island is exposed render property of so precarious and doubtful a tenure that nothing is secure until the season for these destructive visitations is over; they last from the beginning of December to ...
— Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia] [Volume 2 of 2] • Phillip Parker King

... fashioned, and put on her the tunic of Zeus the cloud-gatherer, and arrayed her in her armour for dolorous battle. About her shoulders cast she the tasselled aegis terrible, whereon is Panic as a crown all round about, and Strife is therein and Valour and horrible Onslaught withal, and therein is the dreadful monster's Gorgon head, dreadful and grim, portent of aegis-bearing Zeus. Upon her head set she the two-crested golden helm with fourfold plate, bedecked with men-at-arms of a hundred cities. Upon the flaming chariot set she her foot, and grasped her heavy ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer (Lang, Leaf, Myers trans.)

... There were present two chaplains, one of whom had been at various points in Arkansas, and he gave a thrilling account of some engagements his regiment had had with the enemy. The other was just from the dreadful fight at Alexandria, up the river. It is reported and believed by thousands that the rebel general came to General Banks with a flag of truce and informed him that, unless he withdrew his colored troops, he should take no prisoners and give no quarter. Report said further that they were ...
— A Woman's Life-Work - Labors and Experiences • Laura S. Haviland

... prodigious storms and tempests as are almost incredible, except to such as have seen them, neither do they know with any certainty on what years they may be expected, but unfortunate are they who happen to be at sea when this tempest or tyffon takes place, as few escape the dreadful danger. In this year it was our evil fortune to be at sea in one of these terrible storms; and well it was for us that our ship was newly over-planked, and had no loading save victuals and ballast, with some gold and silver for Bengal, as no other merchandise is carried ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume VII • Robert Kerr

... visits were at all times and all hours, never staying above a day when it did come, then all hands worked hard to unload and refit again. Sometimes everybody went in it. Sometimes two or three remained behind. And it was on one of these occasions we had a most dreadful fright. Hearing a noise amongst the brushwood at the top of the cavern, we found out in a minute, one or all of the pirates were up there. Almost before the thought rushed through us, there was a crash, a whizzing through ...
— Yr Ynys Unyg - The Lonely Island • Julia de Winton

... day, July 24, being Monday (preparing for no less all the black night before) the clouds gathering thick upon us, and the winds singing and whistling most unusually, which made us to cast off our Pinnace, towing the same until then asterne, a dreadful storm and hideous began to blow from out the Northeast, which, swelling and roaring as it were by fits, some hours with more violence than others, at length did beat all light from heaven, which, like an hell of darkness, turned black upon us, so much the more fuller of horror, ...
— Southern Literature From 1579-1895 • Louise Manly

... affinities. My work is purely philanthropic, so Theodore Parker used to tell mother. It was my duty, he said, to comfort the cheerless, to liberate the earth-bound, and so I had to have these poor creatures waiting around. That's why I gave it up. It got to be too dreadful. We never could tell what would come next. Murderers and barnburners and every other accursed spirit seemed to be privileged to come into my poor empty house and abuse it, although Parker and his band promised to protect me. I stopped it. I will not sit again,' she said, ...
— The Shadow World • Hamlin Garland

... I my selfe: those that haue prolonged it, ceasse not to confirme. Wherefore how dangerous and how dishonest it should be for me to inuade the gouernment of that church, which I ought to rule, without cosent of the same, your discretion rightwell vnderstandeth. Yea and how dreadful a thing it is, and how much to be auoided to receiue a cursse, vnder colour of ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (3 of 12) - Henrie I. • Raphael Holinshed

... the face of a martyr and a guilty smile. The unknown, fair or dark, would certainly have her hair down and be wearing a white dressing-jacket; she would be panic-stricken by the light, would be fearfully confused, and would say: "For God's sake, what are you doing! Put it out!" It would all be dreadful, but interesting and new. ...
— The Schoolmistress and Other Stories • Anton Chekhov

... of Political Economy, and such like; and all have to be elected by a universal-suffrage ballot-box,—I do not see how the English Parliament itself will long continue sea-worthy! Nay, I find England in her own big dumb heart, wherever you come upon her in a silent meditative hour, begins to have dreadful misgivings about it. ...
— Latter-Day Pamphlets • Thomas Carlyle

... why I broke it, when I didn't mean to do it. Nurse says it was a most 'unfortunate accident.' I asked her what an accident was. She says it's a thing that happens when you don't expect it—a surprise, she called it. I'm sure it was a dreadful surprise to me, and to Fritz, too; but I'll never play ball in the hall ...
— Probable Sons • Amy Le Feuvre

... to mistake the meaning of these decisive words. Here was not the spy who sought to increase his pay by threatening to reveal everything; it was the spy who is obsessed with the fear of being taken, who no longer wishes to continue his dreadful work—to ...
— A Nest of Spies • Pierre Souvestre

... I trust you are prepared to die," I added, with due solemnity; for I confess that the dreadful thing about her case was the idea of being hurried into eternity with only the worldly wisdom she had preached to me to sustain her in ...
— Desk and Debit - or, The Catastrophes of a Clerk • Oliver Optic

... nothing of them at all," rejoined the sister widow, innocently enough. "But it is dreadful odd in a man to be visiting about among the sick so much—and he ...
— The Sea Lions - The Lost Sealers • James Fenimore Cooper

... all the privacies of the organism—and destroy them in order to make one immense publicity! I do not mean that Europe has failed to adopt the telephone, nor that in Europe there are no hotels with the dreadful curse of an active telephone in every room. But I do mean that the European telephone is a toy, and a somewhat clumsy one, compared with the inexorable seriousness of the American telephone. Many otherwise highly civilized Europeans are as timid in addressing a telephone ...
— Your United States - Impressions of a first visit • Arnold Bennett

... the shapely column stood. Her palaces are dust. In all her streets The voice of singing and the sprightly chord Are silent. Revelry and dance and show Suffer a syncope and solemn pause, While God performs, upon the trembling stage Of His own works, His dreadful part alone. How does the earth receive Him?—With what signs Of gratulation and delight, her King? Pours she not all her choicest fruits abroad, Her sweetest flowers, her aromatic gums, Disclosing paradise ...
— The Task and Other Poems • William Cowper

... the little Egyptian boys and girls used to grow very big and round, and the wizard who could fasten on heads which had been cut off seemed a very wonderful person, and the talking serpents and crocodiles seemed very real and very dreadful. ...
— Peeps at Many Lands: Ancient Egypt • James Baikie

... and her face brightened. "And welcome, Miss Margaret!" she said. "I'll be pleased enough. 'Tis dreadful lonesome, and Mis' Cheriton gone. Not that she could come up here, I don't mean; but I always knew she was there, and she was like a mother to me, and I could always go to her. Yes, miss, the towels do look nice, and I ...
— Margaret Montfort • Laura E. Richards

... the girl, as she clasped my hand, and moved with confidence by my side. "This is so much better than the dreadful fear of falling. Even through these rooms where I have lived for many years I feel safe only in a few places,—on the stairs, and in my rooms, which are also Dorothy's. When Dorothy changes the position ...
— Dorothy Vernon of Haddon Hall • Charles Major

... continued her criminal connection with Mr. Huntingdon, I should think it my absolute duty to inform her husband of the circumstance—or awaken his suspicions at least—however painful it might be, or however dreadful the consequences. She was startled at first by the declaration, so unexpected, and so determinately yet calmly delivered; but rallying in a moment, she coolly replied that, if I saw anything at all reprehensible or suspicious in her conduct, she would freely give me ...
— The Tenant of Wildfell Hall • Anne Bronte

... (and I have put the capsule on my chimney-piece) will shrivel up. So I will wait a month or two till I get the capsule of some large Vandeae for comparison. It is more likely that I have made some dreadful blunder about Acropera than that it should be male yet not a perfect male. May there be some sexual relation between A. Loddigesii and luteola; they seem very close? I should very much like to examine the capsule of the unimpregnated ...
— More Letters of Charles Darwin Volume II - Volume II (of II) • Charles Darwin

... A dreadful famine raged at Buenos Ayres, yet the governor, afraid of giving the Indians a habit of spilling Spanish blood, forbade the people, on pain of death, to go into the fields in search of food, and he placed soldiers at all outlets to the country, with orders to fire upon those ...
— Anecdotes of Animals • Unknown

... laying hold upon me, and the circle was becoming narrower. The thought pressed heavily upon me, "What a dreadful thing, if I am wrong!" Added to this, I trembled to think of those I had misled. "Can it be true? Is it so?" I remembered some I had watched over most zealously, lest the Dissenters should come and pray with them. I had sent them out of the world resting upon a ...
— From Death into Life - or, twenty years of my ministry • William Haslam

... "Accepting your illustration, surely we have one unquestionable virtue in England which is wanting in China. The Chinese authorities kill thousands of innocent people on the most frivolous pretexts. We in England are free from all guilt of that kind—we commit no such dreadful crime—we abhor reckless bloodshed with ...
— The Woman in White • Wilkie Collins

... only a prelude to real disaster: the fleet arrived safe at Panormus, where they remained a short time. On their departure for Italy, the wind and weather were favourable till they reached Cape Palinurus; here a dreadful storm arose, in which 160 galleys, and a considerable number of transports, were lost. This second storm seems to have so dispirited the Roman senate, that they resolved to confine their efforts to land, and ...
— Robert Kerr's General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 18 • William Stevenson

... Plutus limps homeward with us, as we leave The portals of the temple where we knelt And listened while the god of eloquence (Hermes of ancient days, but now disguised In sable vestments) with that other god Somnus, the son of Erebus and Nox, Fights in unequal contest for our souls; The dreadful sovereign of the under world Still shakes his sceptre at us, and we hear The baying of the triple-throated hound; Eros is young as ever, and as fair The lovely Goddess born of ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... this dreadful tragedy was kept together by a thread. The spectre-seers for a considerable time prudently restricted their accusations to persons of ill repute, or otherwise of no consequence in the community. By and by however they lost sight ...
— Lives of the Necromancers • William Godwin

... transfigured by a dreadful smile—the smile of one defying his torturer with hate. ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... volume will take the trouble to annotate their copies with a record of the relevant incidents which meet them every day of their lives, they cannot fail to acknowledge how terribly inevitable is the rise of incompetence to political power. The tragedy is all the more dreadful, when we recognise, as we all must, the high character and ability of the statesmen and politicians who lie under the thrall ...
— The Cult of Incompetence • Emile Faguet

... taken Father, and I'm sorry enough for that; but then Father always said they would some day. But don't you see why I'm glad? They've got me too. I was always proper 'feared they'd take Father and leave me all alone with the children; and he'd have missed us dreadful! Now, you see, I can tend on him, and do everything for him; and that's why I'm glad. If it had to ...
— The King's Daughters • Emily Sarah Holt

... shriek, which was fatal to the nearest living thing. Gerard contemptuously rejects all these and other tales as "old wives' dreams." He and his servants have often digged up mandrakes, and are not only still alive, but listened in vain for the dreadful scream. It might be supposed that such a statement, from so eminent an authority, would settle the point, but we find Sir Thomas Browne, in the next generation, battling these identical popular errors in the pages of his ...
— Gossip in a Library • Edmund Gosse

... reputation I have gained by putting the public to this new test; but really I have ceased to attach any importance to that. I write and publish solely for the sake of occupation, to draw my thoughts away from reality, and take refuge in imagination, however dreadful." ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli

... though they probably created an undercurrent of sympathy for him. Near one station where the train stopped lived a little girl he knew, who had recently urged upon him to wear a beard or whiskers. To this dreadful young person, and to that persistent good nature of his which was now and then fatuous, was due the ill-designed hairy ornamentation which during his Presidency hid the really beautiful modelling of ...
— Abraham Lincoln • Lord Charnwood

... in the best of spirits. "By the two Goddesses,"[41] she swore, "what charming sentiments you Greeks can express. Now I think I look presentable, and can go around and see Papiria, and learn about that dreadful Silanus affair. Tell Agias to bring in the cinnamon ointment. I will try that for a change. It is in the murrhine[42] vase in the ...
— A Friend of Caesar - A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. • William Stearns Davis

... Dunwoodie, starting and turning pale; "your brother! explain yourself—what dreadful meaning is concealed in ...
— The Spy • James Fenimore Cooper

... accursed Antioch—whence nothing good has ever come to me—I have received the saying of an oracle which foretells that, that—why should I hide it from you—in the middle of the year now about to begin some dreadful misfortune shall fall upon me, as lightning strikes the traveller to the earth; and tonight—look here. Here is the house of Death, here are the planets—but what do you know of such things? Last ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... question I am no more able to answer than yourself. There seems, however, only one plausible way of accounting for them—and yet it is dreadful to believe in such atrocity as my suggestion would imply. It is clear that Kidd—if Kidd indeed secreted this treasure, which I doubt not—it is clear that he must have had assistance in the labor. But, the worst of this labor concluded, he may have thought it ...
— Short Stories Old and New • Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith

... white when the words were spoken; but her eyes still sought Averil's face, and grew terrified at the sight of the gush of tears. 'O, Ave, Ave, tell me only—he is not dead!' and as Averil could only make a sign, 'I do have such dreadful fancies about him, and I think I could sleep if I only knew ...
— The Trial - or, More Links of the Daisy Chain • Charlotte M. Yonge

... not very high in the school: not having been able to get farther than that dreadful Propria quae maribus in the Latin grammar, of which, though I have it by heart even now, I never could understand a syllable: but, on account of my size, my age, and the prayers of my mother, was allowed to have the privilege of the bigger boys, and on holidays to walk about ...
— The Fatal Boots • William Makepeace Thackeray

... she added passionately. "It's a dreadful business to me. To be suddenly snatched out of the light and the warmth, away from the touch of warm fingers and the sight of dear faces! Ah, I dread it! I loathe the thought of ...
— The Sky Pilot in No Man's Land • Ralph Connor

... All that can be made out is that Karlsefne sailed up the Hudson. His Scraelings were Esquimaux. But who was the black-kirtled woman who appeared to Gudrid and gave herself the same name? And where was the Maggoty Sea? And what goaded Freydis to her dreadful deeds? I admire Freydis myself; I think she was a femme incomprise. I have taken pains with Freydis, though personally I had rather been Gudrid's ...
— Gudrid the Fair - A Tale of the Discovery of America • Maurice Hewlett

... 'Indeed, I didn't cry till I sat waiting, and it all came over me. Poor papa! and what a journey mamma will have, and how dreadful it will be without her! But I know that it is horrid of me, when papa and my sisters must want her so ...
— Beechcroft at Rockstone • Charlotte M. Yonge

... this act, received arbitrary power to arrest and imprison on suspicion, without check or restraint of law, at their will and pleasure. Prisoners who refused to abjure their errors, who persisted in heresy, or relapsed into it after abjuration, were sentenced to be burnt at the stake,—a dreadful punishment, on the wickedness of which the world has long been happily agreed. Yet we must remember that those who condemned teachers of heresy to the flames, considered that heresy itself involved everlasting perdition; ...
— History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vol. II. • James Anthony Froude

... he said, "I've had a dreadful day—in every way a terrible day. I haven't had time, as things have gone, to think things out. I want to be fair. I want to do the right thing. I do indeed. I don't think there's anything to be gained by going up to London. One thing only now I'm clear about. He's got to marry ...
— The Cathedral • Hugh Walpole

... good thing to punish such fellows, for they sit over a jug of ale and criticise kings and princes and magistrates and generals in a way that is dreadful to listen to. And it is dangerous, too, for the common people hare not the discretion to appreciate how absurd it is for a tinker, a hatter, and a maker of brushes to talk about such things, of which they know little ...
— Comedies • Ludvig Holberg

... noon, being got into a proper birth, she anchored again. We continued in our station all night, and the next morning a gale came on at W.N.W. which was still more violent than any that had preceded it; the water was torn up all around us, and carried much higher than the mast heads, a dreadful sea at the same time rolling in; so that, knowing the ground to be foul, we were in constant apprehension of parting our cables, in which case we must have been almost instantly dashed to atoms against the rocks that were just to leeward of us, and ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. 12 • Robert Kerr

... will follow the honourable dictates of his own heart, and will demonstrate to the world that he will not set the dreadful example of indemnifying himself at the expense of a third party, whose sentiments and conduct towards him and his subjects have ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose

... delightful to see somebody who has something to tell," she said when the interrogation was over. "I ask everybody what news, and no one has any news, which is dreadful for me." ...
— Phoebe, Junior • Mrs [Margaret] Oliphant

... rarely kind, are as interpreters Of my behind-hand slackness!—Welcome hither, As is the spring to the earth. And hath he too Expos'd this paragon to the fearful usage,— At least ungentle,—of the dreadful Neptune, To greet a man not worth her pains, much less ...
— The Winter's Tale - [Collins Edition] • William Shakespeare

... him; insomuch that he earnestly desired Mr. Donne to declare what had befallen him in the short time of his absence. To which Mr. Donne was not able to make a present answer; but, after a long and perplexed pause, did at last say, "I have seen a dreadful vision since I saw you: I have seen my dear wife pass twice by me through this room, with her hair hanging about her shoulders, and a dead child in her arms: this I have seen since I saw you." To which Sir Robert replied, "Sure, sir, you ...
— Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions - Together with Death's Duel • John Donne

... stay, of course. She would telephone home, and advise Aunt Kate, at once. Indeed, so keen was Norma's sense almost of enjoyment in this thrilling hour that she would have been extremely sorry to leave the house. It was sad, it was dreadful, of course, to think that poor old Aunt Marianna was so ill, but at the same time it was most dramatic. She and Chris settled themselves before the fire in the upstairs sitting-room with Doctor Murray, who entertained them with ...
— The Beloved Woman • Kathleen Norris

... the dreadful realms of gloom By those black streams of Hades circled round, Where viper-tressed, fierce ministers of doom,— The Furies drive lost ...
— The Elegies of Tibullus • Tibullus

... appearance of the fourth volume of Clarissa Harlowe, a lady, who signed herself Belfour, wrote to Richardson, stating a report that prevailed, that the history of Clarissa was to terminate in a most tragical manner, and requesting that her entreaties may avert so dreadful a catastrophe. ...
— A Walk from London to Fulham • Thomas Crofton Croker

... past or anticipate the future. The continuity of being is lacerated[1290]; the settled course of sentiment and action is stopped; and life stands suspended and motionless, till it is driven by external causes into a new channel. But the time of suspense is dreadful. ...
— The Life Of Johnson, Volume 3 of 6 • Boswell

... go to school, And he won't let me pass. I think that a toad Ought to keep to the grass. I don't want to cry, But I'm afraid I'm going to; Oh, dear me! What am I to do? Toad. Here's a dreadful thing! A boy in the way; I don't know what to do, I don't know what to say. I can't see the reason Such monsters should be loose; I'm trembling all over, But that is of no use. Johnny. I Must go to school, The bell is going ...
— Baby Chatterbox • Anonymous

... what the men who wrote the New Testament thought. To the men who wrote the book, Jesus was not a Socrates or a Seneca, a Martin Luther or an Abraham Lincoln. His life was not an incident in the process of evolution, His death was not an episode in the dark and dreadful tragedy of human history. His life is God's. greatest gift to men, His death is the climax and the crowning revelation of the heart of the eternal. You can not open the New Testament anywhere without the idea flying into your face, "Christ died for ...
— The World's Great Sermons, Volume 10 (of 10) • Various

... for a moment, and his face grew dark as night. He was a religious man, as sternly so as his Huguenot ancestor, but wearing his religion with a difference. He knew all music, except psalm-tunes, to be directly from the devil. Even as to the psalm-tunes themselves, it seemed to him a dreadful thing that worship could not be conducted without this compromise with evil, this snare to catch the ear; and he harboured in the depth of his soul thoughts about the probable frivolity of David, which he hardly voiced even to himself. The fiddle, in ...
— Marie • Laura E. Richards

... down and calmly eat an egg without even a grain of salt. Perhaps there is something in the climate that makes it less necessary for them than other folk, because we know that in the interior of some parts of Africa, the craving for salt is so dreadful that a native will willingly give the same weight in gold for its ...
— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie

... as I analyse it. The dreadful thing is that I could have been capable of dealing our chance of happiness such a ...
— The Danger Mark • Robert W. Chambers

... around Jackson's right and Pope's left, made a grand charge, taking Pope straight in the flank. Porter's corps—the Fifth—part of McClellan's army, stood in the "bloody angle" of cross-fire. His loss was dreadful—2,000 out of 9,000. Pope was compelled to retire to Centreville. An engagement at Chantilly, September 1st, forced a further retreat to Washington. Pope resigned, and his army was merged in the Army of the ...
— History of the United States, Volume 4 • E. Benjamin Andrews

... sure; that would indeed be dreadful," said Mr. King, getting over the stairs very creditably. "There, here we are now. Whew! it's ...
— Five Little Peppers Midway • Margaret Sidney

... began an engagement with the English. Fire seized the ship of Primauget; who, finding his destruction inevitable, bore down upon the vessel of the English admiral, and grappling with her, resolved to make her share his fate. Both fleets stood some time in suspense, as spectators of this dreadful engagement; and all men saw with horror the flames which consumed both vessels, and heard the cries of fury and despair which came from the miserable combatants. At last the French vessel blew up; and at the same time destroyed the English.[*] ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. - From Henry VII. to Mary • David Hume

... to be due to me, and divide it among themselves. I was then, as I am now, perfectly satisfied with the sense of triumph which filled my soul when I saw my heroic comrades hurl back the hosts of rebellion with slaughter which to some might seem dreadful, but which I rejoiced in as being necessary to end that fratricidal war. It is not worth while to conceal the fact that most earnest patriotism sometimes arouses in the soldier's breast what might seem to be a fiendish desire to witness the slaughter of his country's enemies. Only a soldier ...
— Forty-Six Years in the Army • John M. Schofield

... wife, "See! Heaven has sent us a fortune. But where can we conceal it?" She suggested he should bury it under the floor, which he did accordingly. Soon after this the wife went out to fetch water, and the labourer reflected that his wife was a dreadful gossip, and by to-morrow night all the village would know their secret. So he removed the treasure from its hiding-place and buried it in his barn, beneath a heap of corn. When the wife came back from the well, he said to her quite gravely, "To-morrow ...
— The Book of Noodles - Stories Of Simpletons; Or, Fools And Their Follies • W. A. Clouston

... private "Tommy Torment;" but his mother called him "My precious darling," and "My sweet, good boy," and spoiled him in a truly dreadful way. Anyhow, he was not a nice boy, and we never saw more of him than we ...
— Golden Moments - Bright Stories for Young Folks • Anonymous

... longing for Forrester almost overcame her. How should she get through these seventeen dreadful days till ...
— The Beggar Man • Ruby Mildred Ayres

... his trunk, With both the arms down hanging by the sides. His face appear'd to me, in length and breadth, Huge as St. Peter's pinnacle at Rome, And of a like proportion all his bones. He open'd, as we went, his dreadful mouth, Fit for no sweeter psalmody; and shouted After us, in the words of some strange tongue, Rafel ma-ee amech zabee almee!— 'Dull wretch!' my leader cried, 'keep to thine horn, And so vent better whatsoever ...
— English Critical Essays - Nineteenth Century • Various

... was terrible. I did not arrive here till four o'clock yesterday morning, as no horses were to be had. The drivers chose another route; but what a dreadful one it was! At the last stage I was warned not to travel through the night, and to beware of a certain wood, but this only incited me to go forward, and I was wrong. The carriage broke down, owing to the execrable roads, mere deep rough country ...
— The Love Affairs of Great Musicians, Volume 1 • Rupert Hughes

... took on dreadful at the first, though he wasn't the man to say much. He wore his yellow breeches and blue waistcoat just the same, but lost heart for business, and didn't go to market so reg'lar as he should. Only he seemed to stick closer by the children—by ...
— The Nebuly Coat • John Meade Falkner

... God, those checks of conscience which he so strongly felt even while he was apparently dead in trespasses and sins. 'The Lord, even in my childhood, did scare and affright me with fearful dreams, and did terrify me with dreadful visions.'[19] 'I often wished that there had been no hell, or that I had been a devil to torment others.' A common childish but demoniac idea. His mind was as 'the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... She. Too dreadful. I think it is so terrible when quite nice people are positively inconvenienced. It makes one ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, July 8, 1914 • Various

... (Kentucky,) I believe." On being answered in the negative, he continued, "Well, we will excuse you, then, somewhat in your state—you can't treat your slaves so cruelly there. This, this is the dreadful thing! Wherever sugar is cultivated by slaves, ...
— The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus • American Anti-Slavery Society

... a creeping stupor came over him, warning him that if he lay there he must surely die. So he got upon his feet, and stumbling on, dizzy and half unconscious, drew near to the very house which caused him to shudder with horror at the memory of last night's dreadful scene. ...
— Ten Boys from Dickens • Kate Dickinson Sweetser

... felt the dark thin and lighten, and the scent of the coming dawn became more oppressive to him. A little needle of fear shot into his heart, and his muscles began to grow weak. He saw afar in the east the first pale tinge, faint and gray, of the dreadful light that he feared and hated. His howl now was one of mingled anger and disappointment, and the pack imitated ...
— The Young Trailers - A Story of Early Kentucky • Joseph A. Altsheler

... floor and furniture were clean and well polished. "Elizabeth attends to that," thought the young man. It would have been difficult to find a speck of dust on anything. "It is only in the houses of these dreadful old widows that such order is to be seen," continued Raskolnikoff to himself, looking with curiosity at the chintz curtain overhanging the door which led into a second small room, in which he had never set foot; it contained the old woman's bed and chest of drawers. ...
— The Continental Classics, Volume XVIII., Mystery Tales • Various

... that village they were so vigorously charged by the French cavalry, that they were driven back. Rallying, they were again led to the charge, and again routed with great slaughter by the charges of the horse in front, and the dreadful fire from the inclosures of Blenheim. Nor did the attack on Oberglau to the British right, under Prince Holstein, succeed better; no sooner had he passed the rivulet, than the Irish veterans, posted there, came pouring down upon them, took the prince ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol 58, No. 357, July 1845 • Various

... so?" said Peter, guilelessly, and she assured him that it was. "And what else?" he asked, and she explained that he had known intimately and at first hand those dreadful and dangerous people, those ogres of the modern world, the Bolsheviks, about whom the average man and woman learned only thru the newspapers. And not merely did be tell a sensational story, but he ended it with a money-making lesson. The lesson ...
— 100%: The Story of a Patriot • Upton Sinclair

... twenty-seventh day after her departure, the dispatch boat returned from Port Lima, bringing with her the six Englishmen, safe and sound, but of course in a somewhat broken condition from their dreadful experiences on board the Tiburon; and thus George Saint Leger at length triumphantly accomplished all that he had undertaken to do when he set out ...
— The Cruise of the Nonsuch Buccaneer • Harry Collingwood

... dissipated into air. There was some other man, I thought—perhaps Boller of '89—and remembering him, his picturesque garb and ridiculous pose, my own vanity was deeply cut. Until late that night I sat smoking violently and turning over in my mind the problem and all its dreadful possibilities. In bed, Sleep, the friend of woe, was long coming with her kindly ministrations, and yet held me so long under her beneficent influence that when I awoke I found lying beside my bed, tossed there through a crack in ...
— David Malcolm • Nelson Lloyd

... something dreadful as well as grand in it," said Nita, as she sat down on a boulder beside Emma, near the lower end of ...
— Rivers of Ice • R.M. Ballantyne

... the evacuation taking place so slowly that it was two o'clock in the morning before the last of the force came up. It had been a march of frightful conditions. Attacked by the Afghans on every side, hundreds of the fugitives perished in those first five dreadful miles. As the advance body waited in the snow for those in the rear to join them, the glare of flames from the burning cantonments told that the evacuation had been completed, and that the whole multitude was now at the mercy ...
— Historical Tales, Vol. 4 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... his wife, whose flower-like face peeped out from a nest of white fur. Covertly he squeezed her hand, and was rewarded with a swift, half coquettish glance, in which he read trust and contentment. The dreadful ordeal through which she had passed had accomplished that which no physician in Europe could have hoped for, since no physician would have dared to adopt such drastic measures. Actuated by deliberate cruelty, and with the design of bringing about her death ...
— Dope • Sax Rohmer

... as a dreadful secret, Nell, that we aren't any of us in the seventh heaven about it. Aunt Annie said yesterday: 'I don't know that I'm so set up with it as all that, Jane' (meaning mother). We aren't so set up with it as ...
— Helen with the High Hand (2nd ed.) • Arnold Bennett

... was a very dreadful thing for her to call her auntie, for Fanny thought pigs were very horrid sort of beasts, and it was the worst name she knew, and beside, she said it ...
— The Youth's Companion - Volume LII, Number 11, Thursday, March 13, 1879 • Various

... to the touch, and full-flavoured to the taste; such a one as would be worth a Jewess' eye, with a glass of tawny Port. But the gratification that we have been wont to derive from our real Manilla has been sadly disturbed of late by a circumstance which has caused a dreadful schism in the smoking world, and has agitated every divan in the metropolis to its very centre. The question is, "Whether should a cheroot be smoked by the great or the small end?" On this apparently trivial subject the great body of cheroot ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... she exclaimed. "Ah me! how terrible! I had a sight of Mr. Robertson, with his baby in his arms—just one glimpse in the dreadful tumult. It all came on so suddenly,—every one screaming at once, and not a minute to spare. I could not find my lady, yet I fancied once I heard her screaming for her children; but I ran with them to ...
— Donald and Dorothy • Mary Mapes Dodge

... with slightly quivering lips fetched a deep sigh, looked at the God of the day in the skies. And even as a mad elephant riseth from an assemblage of lotuses, the mighty Duryodhana rose in wrath from among his brothers, and addressed that performer of dreadful deeds, Bhimasena, present there, 'O Vrikodara, it behoveth thee not to speak such words. Might is the cardinal virtue of a Kshatriya, and even a Kshatriya of inferior birth deserveth to be fought with. The lineage of heroes, like the sources of a lordly river, is ever unknown. ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 1 • Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... send her mother her address from time to time, but she concealed her circumstances. When her money had almost gone a letter from her mother reached her. Joan stated that they were in dreadful difficulty; the autumn rains had gone through the thatch of the house, which required entire renewal; but this could not be done because the previous thatching had never been paid for. New rafters and a new ceiling upstairs also were ...
— Tess of the d'Urbervilles - A Pure Woman • Thomas Hardy

... incredulous at the girl, her young eyes full of horror. From actual experience, she hardly knew what drunkenness meant; she had hitherto associated it only with the lowest class of Irish agricultural labourer, or with those dreadful white women who lived, by choice, in Chinese Camps. That there could exist a mother who drank was unthinkable ... ...
— The Getting of Wisdom • Henry Handel Richardson

... living who would give their own weight in sovereigns, though drawing against thirteen to sixteen stone, that all of this dreadful subject might be swallowed up by Lethe; that darkness might settle for ever upon the insanities of Cabool; and the grave close finally over the carnage of Tezeen. But it will not be. Blood will have blood, they say. The madness which could sport in levity with a trust of seventeen thousand ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Vol. 56, No. 346, August, 1844 • Various

... my Christian duty as a neighbor; and I was always very fond of the first Mrs. Darrington, Helena Tracey. What is this wicked world coming to? Robbery and murder stalking bare-faced through the land. It will be a dreadful blow to Mitchell, because he and Luke Darrington have been intimate all their lives. I see the carriage coming round, so I must ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson

... did he acquire them? In a saloon which we taxpayers allow to run on payment of a certain sum of money into our town treasury. So, then, it was the greed or selfishness of the men of this town which lies at the bottom of this dreadful disaster. Who was to blame for the disaster? The track inspector? No. The saloon keeper who sold him the liquor? No. Who, then? We ourselves, my brothers; we who licensed the selling of the stuff which turned a man's brain into liquid fire, and smote his judgment and ...
— Robert Hardy's Seven Days - A Dream and Its Consequences • Charles Monroe Sheldon

... all the goodness and all the prosperity that I procure unto it." So when Jacob, awaking from the sleep in which he learned of the new Covenant with God through the Incarnation of Christ, exclaimed: "How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the House of God, and this is the gate of Heaven!" And then, as the unbounded love and mercy of the Father of all spirits comes to be understood, the heart is in very deed "enlarged," as St. Paul's heart was toward his Corinthian children; and it goes along, ...
— Report Of Commemorative Services With The Sermons And Addresses At The Seabury Centenary, 1883-1885. • Diocese Of Connecticut

... You see I couldn't explain to everybody there that I did it for—for Rutherford—because I didn't want anything so dreadful as that poor Mexican's death on his account. Dad said some of the men might think I did it—oh, just to be showing off," ...
— Oh, You Tex! • William Macleod Raine

... would stop him from going to this dreadful Iceland another year! But how should she manage? And what could they do for a livelihood, being both so poor? Then again he so dearly loved the sea. But in spite of all, she would try and keep him home another season; she would use all her power, ...
— An Iceland Fisherman • Pierre Loti

... more than this in any request for temporal things. Says Archdeacon Farrar: "There are two things to remember about prayers for earthly things: One, that to ask mainly for earthly blessings is a dreadful dwarfing and vulgarization of the grandeur of prayer, as though you asked for a handful of grass, when you might ask for a handful of emeralds; the other that you must always ask for earthly desires with absolute submission of your own will to God's." So silence is oft-times the best ...
— Making the Most of Life • J. R. Miller

... its final departure to heaven or hell, in these awful thunders," said the Abbot; "let those that believe in the Holy Church, join me in orisons for victory in this dreadful combat." ...
— The Abbot • Sir Walter Scott

... dreadful! Young Coxon, isn't it? I've been laid up with a cold, and seen and heard nothing, but I fancy ...
— Half a Hero - A Novel • Anthony Hope

... arms, sometimes the Royalists were victorious. At length a dreadful earthquake occurred. I remember it well. Fear was inspired by the terrible destruction it caused to life and property. In the three cities of Caracas, La Guayra, and Merida, twenty thousand persons ...
— In New Granada - Heroes and Patriots • W.H.G. Kingston

... "Yes, dreadful," answered Zoie, and she thrust a half-dozen small parcels into Jimmy's arms. "I have to be at my dressmaker's in half an hour; and I haven't had a bite of lunch. I'm miles and miles from home; and I can't go into a restaurant and eat just by myself without ...
— Baby Mine • Margaret Mayo

... in Quebec before I fled to France. I met him in Paris before I fled to the East. I met him in Pondicherry. He settled near me in Mahe. Now he is in Paris again. It is dreadful to be reminded of your crime by an avenger. My death, when it comes, will be ...
— The False Chevalier - or, The Lifeguard of Marie Antoinette • William Douw Lighthall

... bring about a more fatal termination. What was to prevent Sir Willmott Burrell from branding her father—from publishing his crime, now that he was to receive no benefit by the terrible secret of which he had become possessed? Although she might be preserved from the dreadful and dreaded doom of marrying a man she could neither regard nor respect, it was equally certain that an eternal barrier existed between her and the only one she loved—a barrier which not even the power of Cromwell could break ...
— The Buccaneer - A Tale • Mrs. S. C. Hall

... A dreadful idea seized him, he took the knife and advanced with it towards poor Miss Lucy. Dragging her from the chair, he threw her on the ground and began to cut away at her wax neck with his knife. As the chief part of the edge was blunted, he did not at first make much impression; ...
— Norman Vallery - How to Overcome Evil with Good • W.H.G. Kingston

... "What dreadful slang. Fancy calling Bradshaw a chicken!" she exclaimed. "Besides, you have a college called Keble, and my father knew Dr. Keble, so that can't be hundreds of years old. No, Cambridge have chosen their names ...
— Godfrey Marten, Undergraduate • Charles Turley

... knowing what must come, no other city in America so gaily set forth upon the road to ruin as did patriotic New York. And from that dreadful hour when, through the cannon smoke on Brooklyn Heights, she beheld the ghastly face of ruin leering at her across the foggy water—from that heart-breaking hour when the British drums rolled from the east, and the tall war-ships covered themselves with smoke, and ...
— The Reckoning • Robert W. Chambers

... to the wells of Cornwall are as strong to-day as ever they were in the past, and there seems little reason to doubt that the good condition of wells, cromlechs, and other antiquities in the county, is due to the widespread traditions that dreadful harm will befall those who disturb ...
— The Cornish Riviera • Sidney Heath

... blow fallen more swiftly than she would have thought possible, but it was coupled with a second of which she had never dreamed. That it was this man, above all others, that should have come; this man, who stood to her mind, by a mere chance, for all that was most dreadful in the sinister forces arrayed against her—this brought misery down on her indeed. For, besides her own personal reasons for terror, there was, besides, the knowledge that the bringing of such a man at all from London on such business meant that ...
— Come Rack! Come Rope! • Robert Hugh Benson

... acquainted with it. If we could avoid seeing it with all its surroundings, we might perhaps believe that it was not the greatest of evils. The wisest and bravest are those who take the best means to avoid reflecting on it, as every man who sees it in its real light regards it as dreadful. The necessity of dying created all the constancy of philosophers. They thought it but right to go with a good grace when they could not avoid going, and being unable to prolong their lives indefinitely, nothing remained but to build an immortal reputation, and to save from the general ...
— Reflections - Or, Sentences and Moral Maxims • Francois Duc De La Rochefoucauld

... lectured him about the little respect he showed his father, whose very footsteps he ought to kiss. You could not yourself talk better to him. But what of that? I submitted to reason, and considered that, after all, he had done nothing so dreadful. ...
— The Impostures of Scapin • Moliere

... the voice: "it is a dreadful night. Hospitable cottagers, pray give me admittance. I would not have asked it but for the storm. I would have kept my watch ...
— Maid Marian • Thomas Love Peacock

... absolutely clear in my mind that, if anything is to be done toward disarmament, a practical beginning must be made by the Czar; but the unfortunate thing is that with, no doubt, fairly good intentions, he is weak and ill informed. The dreadful mistake he is making in violating the oath sworn by his predecessors and himself to Finland is the result of this weakness and ignorance; and should he attempt to diminish his overgrown army he would, in all probability, be ...
— Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Volume II • Andrew Dickson White

... they are trying to keep him awake. If he is allowed to go to sleep, he will die. They are walking him back and forth, though he implores them to let him sleep. I couldn't bear to see it any longer, it was too, too dreadful! Oh, how can people be ...
— Golden Days for Boys and Girls, Vol. XIII, Nov. 28, 1891 • Various

... her linen was stiff and saturated with the blood which had flowed. Another wound on the temple had caused a torrent of blood, which remained glued over the whole cheek. The retracted lips of this poor suffering creature, gave a dreadful grin to the aged countenance, expressing the strong agony she must have endured, no doubt from the filling up of the breast with those three pints of blood found there by the surgeons. The details of ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 54, No. 338, December 1843 • Various

... of the field. From the Hellespont to Thermopylae, and the suburbs of Constantinople, he ravaged, without resistance, and without mercy, the provinces of Thrace and Macedonia. Heraclea and Hadrianople might, perhaps, escape this dreadful irruption of the Huns; but the words, the most expressive of total extirpation and erasure, are applied to the calamities which they inflicted on seventy cities of the Eastern empire. [20] Theodosius, his court, and the unwarlike people, were protected by the walls of Constantinople; ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 3 • Edward Gibbon

... thus that in future all was destined to be burned behind him. While conquering, he had preserved: when retiring, he resolved to destroy: either from necessity, to ruin the enemy and to retard his march, every thing being imperative in war; or by way of reprisal, the dreadful consequence of wars of invasion, which in the first place authorize every means of defence, while these afterwards operate as motives ...
— History of the Expedition to Russia - Undertaken by the Emperor Napoleon in the Year 1812 • Count Philip de Segur

... of wooden buildings, caught fire and was burnt in 1701, both palace and state offices falling to the ground. The capital had dreadful memories for the Tsar, who wished to build a new fort looking out upon the Baltic Sea. Its ancient churches and convents did not attract him, for religion was strongly associated in his mind with the stubborn opposition of the priesthood, which invariably met his plans ...
— Heroes of Modern Europe • Alice Birkhead

... letter she said you had a dreadful accident. That you were run away with in a sleigh and that Nan Sherwood and Walter ...
— Nan Sherwood at Rose Ranch • Annie Roe Carr

... along with me, but went ashore alone in the boat. Making directly to the gate of the town, I saw there a great number of men upon guard, some sitting, and others standing with sticks in their hands; and they had all such dreadful countenances that I was greatly alarmed; but perceiving they remained stationary, and did not so much as move their eyes, I took courage, and went nearer, when I found they were all turned into ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments vol. 1 • Anon.



Words linked to "Dreadful" :   dread, fearsome, frightening, atrocious, awful, unpleasant, dire, fearful, dreaded, horrendous, direful, alarming, bad, unspeakable, terrible, painful, dreadfulness, abominable, penny dreadful, horrific



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