awfulness
Noun
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Noun
awfulness (uncountable)
- The state or quality of being awful.
- 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, "Characters,"
- Out came old Teenie, buzzing mad as a whole nest of wasps. Muttered awfulnesses came from her great padded bonnet.
- 1961, Peter De Vries, The Blood of the Lamb, Penguin, 1982, Chapter 3, p. 36,
- "Why is the awfulness of families such a popular reason for starting another?"
- 1942, Emily Carr, The Book of Small, "Characters,"
- The quality of striking with awe, or with reverence
- Synonyms: dreadfulness, solemnity
- 1823, Thomas de Quincey, "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth" in On Murder, edited by Robert Morrison, Oxford World's Classics, 2006, p. 3,
- […] the knocking at the gate, which succeeds to the murder of Duncan, produced to my feelings an effect for which I could never account: the effect was—that it reflected back upon the murder a peculiar awfulness and a depth of solemnity […]
- the awfulness of this sacred place
- The state of being struck with awe; a spirit of solemnity; profound reverence.
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002