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Glite Dictionary
😱 Very bad 📰 A bad thing
dreadful

dreadful

1 4.3
A very bad or shocking thing, often a poor story
  • noun
  • /ˈdrɛd.fəl/
translation icon : novela barata
  • The artist's latest exhibition was a dreadful display of unrefined work that surprised even her fans.
  • penny dreadfuls

Examples

  • Many readers find that the content in some modern dreadfuls lacks originality and depth.

  • ZS: The great thing about Woolf is that she reviewed books that most of you would consider very bad, like, you know, Victorian penny dreadfuls—awful books by completely obscure women.

    Blog text (25)

  • You know, it's a dreadful story of trying to get this woman buried.

  • The movie received dreadful reviews, with critics calling it predictable and poorly made.

Synonyms

horror
vsdreadful
167 3.4

A person or thing that causes strong fear or disgust

describes something very bad or sensational rather than causing fear
penny dreadful
vsdreadful
  • Archaic
1 9.5

A cheap short book that tells exciting, often scary stories

is a general negative term for shocking or low quality things

Antonyms

excellent
∞ 1.0

Very good and better than most similar things

delightful
202 2.0

Something very pleasant that makes you happy

Compounds

penny dreadful
  • Archaic
1 9.5

A cheap short book that tells exciting, often scary stories

Surface Forms

dreadful singular
dreadfuls plural

Morphology

dreadful = dread (opaque) = dread + ful

The noun form 'dreadful' as a sensational or low-quality story is not a direct derivation from the adjective meaning.

Etymology

Dreadful as a noun came from the same root dread ('fear') and from cheap, shocking stories once called 'penny dreadfuls', so people used it for things that were shocking or low quality. That's why a dreadful can mean 'something very bad, shocking, or unpleasant'.