Definition of "fearful"
fearful
adjective
comparative fearfuller or fearfuler or more fearful, superlative fearfullest or fearfulest or most fearful
Quotations
Sirs, stop their mouths, let them not speak to me,But let them hear what fearful words I utter.
c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]
In the later Hebrew midrash Lilith is presented as the woman who knows how to recite the fearful name of God to work calamity; that this little girl cries out the fearful name of the sun god and thereby causes an earthquake would indicate that this girl is linked in the structure of the myth with Lilith.
1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 184
(dated) Terrible; shockingly bad.
Quotations
But every day after dinner, for an hour, we were all together, and then the Favourite and the rest of the Royal Hareem competed who should most beguile the leisure of the Serene Haroun reposing from the cares of State — which were generally, as in most affairs of State, of an arithmetical character, the Commander of the Faithful being a fearful boggler at a sum.
1859, Charles Dickens, The Haunted House
(now rare) Frightened; filled with terror.
Quotations
kings ſhall crouch vnto our conquering ſwords,And hoſtes of Souldiers ſtand amazd at vs,When with their fearfull tongues they ſhall confeſſeTheſe are the men that al the world admires,
c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, (please specify the page)
adverb
comparative more fearful, superlative most fearful
(dialect) Extremely; fearfully.
Quotations
His Dardanelles expedition gave the Turk a fearful long start.
2014, Michael Brock, Eleanor Brock, Margot Asquith's Great War Diary 1914-1916