dread
Plural: dreads
Noun
- fearful expectation or anticipation
- Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror.
- Reverential or respectful fear; awe.
- Somebody or something dreaded.
- A person highly revered.
- Fury; dreadfulness.
- A Rastafarian.
- Clipping of dreadlock.
- Clipping of dreadnought.
Verb
Verb Forms: dreaded, dreading, dreads
- To anticipate with great fear or apprehension.
- be afraid or scared of; be frightened of
- To fear greatly.
- To anticipate with fear.
- To be in dread, or great fear.
- To style (the hair) into dreadlocks.
Adjective Satellite
- causing fear or dread or terror
- "the dread presence of the headmaster"
- "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"
- "a dreadful storm"
Adj
- Terrible; greatly feared; dreaded.
- Awe-inspiring; held in fearful awe.
Examples
- He began to dread his turn when he saw his rack was full of only vowels in Words With Friends.
- I'm dreading getting the results of the test, as it could decide my whole life.
- My visit to the doctor is filling me with dread.
- The Royal Navy sent six dreads and four BCs to intercept the German raiding force.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English dreden, from Old English drǣdan (“to fear, dread”), aphetic form of ondrǣdan (“to fear, dread”), from Proto-West Germanic *andarādan, equivalent to Old English and- + rǣdan (whence read); corresponding to an aphesis of earlier adread.
Akin to Old Saxon antdrādan, andrādan (“to fear, dread”), Old High German intrātan (“to fear”), Middle High German entrāten (“to fear, dread, frighten”).
Synonyms
apprehension, apprehensiveness, awful, dire, direful, dreaded, dreadful, fear, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terrible
Scrabble Score: 7
dread: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Worddread: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
dread: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary