Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Warning of or having dreadful or terrible consequences; calamitous: a dire economic forecast; dire threats.
- adj. Urgent; desperate: in dire need; dire poverty.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Causing or attended by great fear or terrible suffering; dreadful; awful: as, dire disaster; the dire results of intemperance.
- Synonyms Fearful, woeful, disastrous, calamitous, destructive, terrific, awful, portentous.
Wiktionary
- adj. Ill-boding; portentous.
- adj. Dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.
- adj. Urgent, pressing.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Ill-boding; portentous.
- adj. Evil in great degree; dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
- adj. causing fear or dread or terror
Etymologies
- From Latin dirus ("fearful, ominous"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin dīrus, fearsome, terrible; akin to Greek deinos. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“On Friday, the LCC also detailed what it described as dire humanitarian conditions and other developments in several locales.”
“WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced a series of moves Wednesday that redefine the federal government's $700 billion rescue plan for the financial industry in order to tackle what he called a dire situation in the consumer credit markets.”
“He twice referred to past policy mistakes that contributed to the Great Depression, noting that the repetition of those mistakes - unregulated financial markets and trade protectionism - threaten to exacerbate what he describes as a dire global financial crisis that has yet to bottom out.”
“Until all you entitlement libs figure this out and quit expecting everyone to bail you out and pay for everything, this country will continue to be in dire need of reform.”
“Our lop-sided world trade agreements etc., is in dire need of your time and effort.”
“The GOP would have to be in dire straits indeed if he's considered a serious candidate in 2016.”
“Just look at who and what we have "leading" our Nation, no wonder we are in dire straits.”
Simpsons billionaire gets most write-in votes in NYC mayor race
“Until Monday, not a single representative of the euro zone had been willing to discuss the possibility of aid measures for countries in dire financial straits.”
“As the work has been given to Hitachi and the Japanese economy is in dire straits, I would expect the number of jobs allocated to the UK to reduce as "the situation develops".”
“We are also in dire need of people to produce non-fic horror and Lovecraft articles.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘dire’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Words sung by: Belle and Sebastian
beguiling, herbaceous, peninsula, suffragette, damascan, hastening, berserk, overtime, leccy, bestow, swathe, arab strap and 193 more...
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What is it?
How am I supposed to know what it is?
It's... I don't know. But it hurts.
You'll see soon enough.
Oh, yes, you will see!ibuprofen expirat..., texas holdem calc..., omniformat crack, tainted love ring..., lemonade tycoon, the healing touch..., ritz crackers moc..., aerosmith logo, neck sweats, autumn cannibalism, dali clock banking, adult in disguise and 41 more...
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Shakespeare.03
kinsman, bruit, purgative, sundry, largess, barefaced, carouse, valiant, auger, verity, weal, battlement and 2 more...
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Twitter favorites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favorite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
unfathomably, glice, cuh, fab, ciggaty, doll, thuggin, oxymoronic, pineapple, succubutt, griming, cheeky and 2369 more... -
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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curligirli0's Words
crapulous, swish, shiatsu, zen, xenoglossy, nincompoop, loquacious, pianissimo, onomatopoeia, imperturbable, silky, hosanas and 379 more...
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newGRE
mostly from magoosh
imbue, verge on, nonchalant, deliberate, timorous, futile, provisional, dissect, checked, tinged, alluring, visionary and 1046 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 996 more...
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Scriptie: The Return of the King
i can't carry it ..., at the end of all..., it's done, reach, eagles, veil, grass, water, cream, strawberries, barley, summer and 200 more...
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mango22's Words
avalanche, apple, arrividerci, awry, adamant, asunder, barter, beloved, calm, cataclysmic, catastrophe, coat and 143 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for dire.
Prolagus
(Take your carriage clock and shove it, by Belle and Sebastian) Apr 27, 2009
sionnach To say, in French. Jan 9, 2008