Aw"ful (?), a. 1. Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling; terrible; as, an awful scene. "The hour of Nature's awful throes."
Hemans.
2. Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence, or with fear and admiration; fitted to inspire reverential fear; profoundly impressive.
Heaven's awful Monarch.
Milton.
3. Struck or filled with awe; terror-stricken. [Obs.]
A weak and awful reverence for antiquity.
I. Watts.
4. Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding. [Obs.]
Thrust from the company of awful men.
Shak.
5. Frightful; exceedingly bad; great; -- applied intensively; as, an awful bonnet; an awful boaster. [Slang]
Syn. -- See Frightful.
© Webster 1913. | 
