Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Causing disgust or shock; horrifying.
  • adjective Causing fright; terrifying.
  • adjective Excessive; extreme.
  • adjective Disagreeable; distressing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Full of occasion for fright; causing or apt to excite alarm or terror; terrible; dreadful: as, a frightful chasm; a frightful tempest.
  • Intolerable; shocking; hideous.
  • Full of terror; fearful; alarmed.
  • Synonyms Dreadful, Fearful, etc. (see awful); alarming, terrific, horrible, shocking.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Full of fright; affrighted; frightened.
  • adjective Full of that which causes fright; exciting alarm; impressing terror; shocking.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete : Full of fright; affrighted; frightened.
  • adjective Full of that which causes fright; exciting alarm; impressing terror; shocking; as, a frightful chasm, or tempest; a frightful appearance.
  • adjective Used as an intensifier

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact
  • adjective provoking horror
  • adjective extremely distressing

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English frightful ("afraid"), from Old English forhtful ("fainthearted, timorous"), equivalent to fright +‎ -ful.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word frightful.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • "Angelica, finding herself alone, abandoned in this frightful solitude, remained without movement, as if stupefied, with hands joined and eyes turned towards heaven, till at last, pouring forth a torrent of tears, she exclaimed: 'Cruel fortune, have you not yet exhausted your rage against me?'"

    - Thomas Bulfinch, 'Age of Fable'.

    September 19, 2009