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Webster 1913 Edition

Awful

Aw′ful

,
Adj.
1.
Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling; terrible;
as, an
awful
scene
.
“The hour of Nature’s awful throes.”
Hemans.
2.
Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence, or with fear and admiration; fitted to inspire reverential fear; profoundly impressive.
Heaven's
awful
Monarch.
Milton.
3.
Struck or filled with awe; terror-stricken.
[Obs.]
A weak and
awful
reverence for antiquity.
I. Watts.
4.
Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding.
[Obs.]
Thrust from the company of
awful
men.
Shakespeare
5.
Frightful; exceedingly bad; great; – applied intensively;
as, an
awful
bonnet; an
awful
boaster.
[Slang]
Syn. – See
Frightful
.

Webster 1828 Edition

Awful

AWFUL

,
Adj.
[awe and full.]
1.
That strikes with awe; that fills with profound reverence; as the awful majesty of Jehovah.
2.
That fills with terror and dread; as the awful approach of death.
3.
Struck with awe; scrupulous.
A weak and awful reverence for antiquity.
Shakespeare uses it for worshipful, inspiring respect by authority or dignity.
Our common people use this word in the sense of frightful, ugly, detestable.

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