direful

dire·ful

adj \ˈdī(-ə)r-fəl\

Definition of DIREFUL

1

: dreadful <direful war began again — Charles Dickens>

2

: ominous

— dire·ful·ly \-fə-lē\ adverb

Examples of DIREFUL

1. <the stock market crash was the first direful indication of the dark days to come>
2. <heard the direful howling of the wolves during the night>

First Known Use of DIREFUL

1565

Related to DIREFUL

Synonyms: baleful, dire, ominous, doomy, foreboding, ill, ill-boding, inauspicious, menacing, minatory, portentous, sinister, threatening

Antonyms: unthreatening

Related Words: black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dim, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, gloomy, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched; discouraging, disheartening, hopeless, unfavorable, unpromising, unpropitious; ill-fated, ill-starred, star-crossed, troubled, unfortunate, unlucky; evil, malign, malignant

Near Antonyms: auspicious, benign, bright, encouraging, favorable, golden, heartening, hopeful, promising, propitious, prosperous

see all synonyms and antonyms

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