Definition of "dire" []

• Warning of or having dreadful or terrible consequences; calamitous: a dire economic forecast; dire threats. (adjective)
• Urgent; desperate: in dire need; dire poverty. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "On Friday, the LCC also detailed what it described as dire humanitarian conditions and other developments in several locales."
• "WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced a series of moves Wednesday that redefine the federal government's $700 billion rescue plan for the financial industry in order to tackle what he called a dire situation in the consumer credit markets."
• "He twice referred to past policy mistakes that contributed to the Great Depression, noting that the repetition of those mistakes - unregulated financial markets and trade protectionism - threaten to exacerbate what he describes as a dire global financial crisis that has yet to bottom out."