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Definition of "direful" [dire•ful]

  • Inspiring dread; terrible. (adjective)
  • Foreshadowing evil or disaster; ominous. (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.

Use "direful" in a sentence
  • "The beginning was not easy, it was even "direful," and "methought" I should die of despair; but now things are going, I am all right, come what may!"
  • "While you diligently pursued that favorite phantom of yours, called profits, and moralized about that favorite fetich of yours, called competition, even greater and more direful things have been accomplished by combination."
  • "This he took in good part, and was really pleased, nodding his head with direful foreknowledge and mystery, until George Leach, the erstwhile cabin-boy, ventured some rough pleasantry on the subject."