Awe (?), n. [OE. ae, aghe, fr. Icel. agi; akin to AS. ege, ga, Goth. agis, Dan. ave chastisement, fear, Gr. pain, distress, from the same root as E. ail. 3. Cf. Ugly.]
1.
Dread; great fear mingled with respect. [Obs. or Obsolescent]
His frown was full of terror, and his voice
Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe.
Cowper.
2.
The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence.
There is an awe in mortals' joy,
A deep mysterious fear.
Keble.
To tame the pride of that power which held the Continent in awe.
Macaulay.
The solitude of the desert, or the loftiness of the mountain, may fill the mind with awe -- the sense of our own littleness in some greater presence or power.
C. J. Smith.
To stand in awe of, to fear greatly; to reverence profoundly.
Syn. -- See Reverence.
© Webster 1913.
Awe (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Awed (); p. pr. & vb. n. Awing.] To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread.
That same eye whose bend doth awe the world.
Shak.
His solemn and pathetic exhortation awed and melted the bystanders.
Macaulay.
© Webster 1913. | 
