DREAD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dread mean? 

• DREAD (noun)
  The noun DREAD has 1 sense:

1. fearful expectation or anticipation

  Familiarity information: DREAD used as a noun is very rare.

• DREAD (adjective)
  The adjective DREAD has 1 sense:

1. causing fear or dread or terror

  Familiarity information: DREAD used as an adjective is very rare.

• DREAD (verb)
  The verb DREAD has 1 sense:

1. be afraid or scared of; be frightened of

  Familiarity information: DREAD used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DREAD (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Fearful expectation or anticipation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

apprehension; apprehensiveness; dread

Context example:

the student looked around the examination room with apprehension

Hypernyms ("dread" is a kind of...):

fear; fearfulness; fright (an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dread"):

trepidation (a feeling of alarm or dread)

boding; foreboding; premonition; presentiment (a feeling of evil to come)

suspense (apprehension about what is going to happen)

gloom; gloominess; somberness; sombreness (a feeling of melancholy apprehension)

chill; pall (a sudden numbing dread)

Derivation:

dread (be afraid or scared of; be frightened of)

dread (causing fear or dread or terror)

• DREAD (adjective)

Sense 1

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)

Derivation:

dread (fearful expectation or anticipation)

• DREAD (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they dread    ... he / she / it dreads   
Past simple: dreaded   
Past participle: dreaded   
-ing form: dreading   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be afraid or scared of; be frightened of

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

dread; fear

Context example:

We should not fear the Communists!

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dread"):

panic (be overcome by a sudden fear)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

Sam cannot dread Sue

Derivation:

dread (fearful expectation or anticipation)

 Context examples 

“For the Lord's love,” said Mr. Peggotty, falling back, and putting out his hand, as if to keep off what he dreaded.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

All this weakness comes to me in sleep; until I dread the very thought.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Dread remorse when you are tempted to err, Miss Eyre; remorse is the poison of life.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I've known it long enough to lose my dread and be happy working for those I love, and don't call yourself old—forty is the prime of life.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"I have a dread that he will turn upon them unexpectedly some day."

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Sometimes I sat with my eyes fixed on the ground, fearing to raise them lest they should encounter the object which I so much dreaded to behold.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Right easy were the Montacutes of their Castle of Twynham, and little had they to dread from roving galley or French squadron, while Lady Mary Loring had the ordering of it.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She believed that it was out of dread of him that Lady Frances had accepted the escort of the Shlessingers to London.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“PRIVATE: for the hands of G. J. Utterson ALONE, and in case of his predecease to be destroyed unread,” so it was emphatically superscribed; and the lawyer dreaded to behold the contents.

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

A condition marked by excessive worry and feelings of fear, dread, and uneasiness that last six months or longer.

(GAD, NCI Dictionary)