DIRE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does dire mean? 

• DIRE (adjective)
  The adjective DIRE has 2 senses:

1. fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless

2. causing fear or dread or terror

  Familiarity information: DIRE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIRE (adjective)

Comparative: direr   
Superlative: direst   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless

Synonyms:

desperate; dire

Context example:

a dire emergency

Similar:

critical (being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Causing fear or dread or terror

Synonyms:

awful; dire; direful; dread; dreaded; dreadful; fearful; fearsome; frightening; horrendous; horrific; terrible

Context example:

a terrible curse

Similar:

alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)

 Context examples 

The great writer had recently died in a foreign land—in dire poverty, Martin remembered, which was not to be wondered at, considering the magnificent pay authors receive.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Two or more head injuries within a very short amount of time can have really dire consequences for the brain lining and its ability to repair.

(Scientists watch the brain’s lining heal after a head injury, National Institutes of Health)

We had little time to watch them, however, for in an instant they had overtaken the fugitives and were making a dire slaughter among them.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My friend, is it not a dire need for the which I am giving, possibly my life?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

This was a dire blow to poor Elizabeth, who had relied with firmness upon Justine’s innocence.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

O, we must be careful. I foresee that we may yet involve your master in some dire catastrophe.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

One afternoon, when we were all harassed into a state of dire confusion, and Mr. Creakle was laying about him dreadfully, Tungay came in, and called out in his usual strong way: Visitors for Copperfield!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Our task is now in reality more difficult than ever, and this new trouble makes every hour of the direst importance.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

And to add confusion to confusion, there was the servant, an unceasing menace, that appeared noiselessly at his shoulder, a dire Sphinx that propounded puzzles and conundrums demanding instantaneous solution.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)