English Explanatory Dictionary

dread

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To fear greatly.
  2. To anticipate with fear.
  3. To be in dread, or great fear.
  4. To style (the hair) into dreadlocks.
noun
  1. Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror.
  2. Reverential or respectful fear; awe.
  3. Somebody or something dreaded.
  4. A person highly revered.
  5. Fury; dreadfulness.
  6. A Rastafarian.
  7. Clipping of dreadlock.
  8. Clipping of dreadnought.
adj
  1. Terrible; greatly feared; dreaded.
  2. Awe-inspiring; held in fearful awe.

Pronunciation

drĕd /dɹɛd/ en-us-dread.ogg

Word forms

dread dreads dreading dreaded dreader dreadest

Etymology

From Middle English dreden, from Old English drǣdan (“to fear, dread”), aphetic form of ondrǣdan (“to fear, dread”), from Proto-West Germanic *andarādan, equivalent to Old English and- + rǣdan (whence read); corresponding to an aphesis of earlier adread. Akin to Old Saxon antdrādan, andrādan (“to fear, dread”), Old High German intrātan (“to fear”), Middle High German entrāten (“to fear, dread, frighten”).

Related words

dreadlocks dreadnought

Derived words

a burnt child dreads the fire the burnt child dreads the fire dreadable dreadingly dreadworthy fordread indread undreading dreadly misdread dreaden dread fascination dreadful dreadless dreadmill dreadsome dready rent-a-dread undread dreadness
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on D Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary