Definition of "formidable" []

• Arousing fear, dread, or alarm: the formidable prospect of major surgery. (adjective)
• Inspiring awe, admiration, or wonder: "Though a true hero, he was also a thoroughgoing bureaucrat and politician, a formidable combination” ( Mario Puzo). (adjective)
• Difficult to undertake, surmount, or defeat: a formidable challenge; a formidable opponent. (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.

• "From this latter practice arose their name — CONDOTTIERI; a term formidable all over Italy, for a period, which concluded in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, but of which it is not so easy to ascertain the commencement."
• "Fitch cautioned that the country's sovereign ratings remained constrained by relatively low levels of external liquidity as well as what it described as formidable social and structural challenges."
• "From this latter practice arose their name -- CONDOTTIERI; a term formidable all over Italy, for a period, which concluded in the earlier part of the seventeenth century, but of which it is not so easy to ascertain the commencement."