Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The state of being direful; dreadfulness; calamitousness.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Quality of being
direful .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
direful + -ness
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Examples
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The curing and healing men came to attend and watch and mark them that night; for naught else could they do, because of the direfulness of their cuts and their stabs, their gashes and their numerous wounds, but apply to them philtres and spells and charms, to staunch their blood and their bleeding and their deadly pains.
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Either the forcefulness and plausibility of his arguments or the direfulness of their need led the directors to make the venture.
Chapters of Opera Being historical and critical observations and records concerning the lyric drama in New York from its earliest days down to the present time Henry Edward Krehbiel 1888
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