Definition of "awful"

Shepard: You seem to know an awful lot about me.Geth: Extranet data sources. Insecure broadcasts. All organic data sent out is received. We watch you.

2010, BioWare, Mass Effect 2 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2 AI Core Room

There was an air of gravity and importance about the garb of the person, and something indescribably odd, I might say awful, in the perfect, stonelike stillness of the figure, that effectually checked the testy comment which had at once risen to the lips of the irritated artist.

1839, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalken the Painter

God ought not to be commixed in our actions, but with awful reverence, and an attention full of honour and respect.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 56, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book I, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […]

And then she stopped, and stood as if in awe / (For sleep is awful) […].

1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.143

If the keepers of the sacred corral discovered paternity in their stock breeding, then that knowledge would have been seen as numinous, awe-ful, and unconsciously unsettling.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 124

She spoke about Mr. Pendennis (a worthy little gentleman enough, but there are others as good as he) with an awful reverence, as if he had been the Pope of Rome on his throne, and she a cardinal kneeling at his feet, and giving him incense.

1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 2, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850

The race was run, and the dog ran "awful".

1933 January 21, The Sydney Sportsman, NSW, page 1