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dire - Meaning and Examples

Meaning of 'dire' (Webster Dictionary)

1 . Dire [ superl.]
- Ill-boding; portentous; as, dire omens.
- Evil in great degree; dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.

Meaning of 'dire' (Princeton's WordNet)

1 . dire [ s]
Meaning (1):
- causing fear or dread or terror
Example in sentence:
  • a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked;
  • a dreadful storm;
  • a fearful howling;
  • a terrible curse;
  • an awful risk;
  • dire news;
  • horrendous explosions shook the city;
  • polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was;
  • the awful war;
  • the dread presence of the headmaster
Meaning (2):
- fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
Example in sentence:
  • a desperate illness;
  • a dire emergency;
  • on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel

Nearby Words:

diradiation direct direct-acting directed directer directing direction directive directly directness

See 'dire' also in:

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