FRIGHTFUL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does frightful mean? 

• FRIGHTFUL (adjective)
  The adjective FRIGHTFUL has 3 senses:

1. provoking horror

2. extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact

3. extremely distressing

  Familiarity information: FRIGHTFUL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FRIGHTFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Provoking horror

Synonyms:

atrocious; frightful; horrible; horrifying; ugly

Context example:

an ugly wound

Similar:

alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)

Derivation:

frightfulness (the quality of being frightful)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact

Synonyms:

awful; frightful; terrible; tremendous

Context example:

spent a frightful amount of money

Similar:

extraordinary (beyond what is ordinary or usual; highly unusual or exceptional or remarkable)

Domain usage:

colloquialism (a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Extremely distressing

Synonyms:

fearful; frightful

Context example:

a frightful mistake

Similar:

bad (having undesirable or negative qualities)

Derivation:

frightfulness (the quality of being frightful)

 Context examples 

The suck of the water as it took the beginning of the last steep pitch was frightful, and Thornton knew that the shore was impossible.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Her struggle back into life was something frightful to see and hear.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I had seen the frightful treatment of the cabin-boy, and knew that I should very probably receive the same, if not worse.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The young ladies went, and Lady Middleton was happily preserved from the frightful solitude which had threatened her.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

“Where are the books?” he cried, with a frightful face.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Their frightful blows shattered everything upon which they fell.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The unknown bore him on he knew not to what frightful hurt, and he yelped and ki-yi'd unceasingly.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Came frightful days of snow and rain.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

A fiend had snatched from me every hope of future happiness; no creature had ever been so miserable as I was; so frightful an event is single in the history of man.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Slowly she advanced, her face pale and drawn with a frightful apprehension, her eyes fixed and staring, her terrified gaze riveted upon the dark figure on the floor.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)