a. Forms: 4–5 ferful(l, (4 fervol), 4–6 fereful(l, feerful(l, 4–7 fearefull, 6–7 fearfull(e, 6– fearful. [f. as prec. + -FUL.]
I. objectively.
1. Causing fear; inspiring terror, reverence, or awe; dreadful, terrible, awful.
1340–70. Alisaunder, 201. Þei lete flie to þe flocke ferefull sondes.
1382. Wyclif, Gen. xxviii. 17. And [Iacob] dredynge seide, Howe feerful is this place!
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 7731. This feerfull freike frusshet into batell.
1461. Paston Lett., No. 400, II. 25. She shuld be … put in ferfull place, in shortyng of hyr lyve dayes.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, xlii. 140. When he was in dyspleasure, he had a fearfull chere.
1563. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 10 b. A flying Dragon, whereof we speake, very fearefull to looke upon.
1611. Bible, Deut. xxviii. 58. Feare this glorious and fearefull Name, THE LORD THY GOD.
a. 1694. Tillotson, Sermon iv. That fearful Punishment which shall be inflicted on them in another life.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. 98. My worst trial, and my fearfullest danger!
1792. S. Rogers, The Pleasures of Memory, I. 43.
| Oft, fancy-led, at midnight’s fearful hour, | |
| With startling step we scaled the lonely tower. |
1845. W. H. Kelly, trans. L. Blanc’s The History of Ten Years, 1830–1840, II. 78. M. de Choulot had obliged him to stop a league from the town, in a valley planted with olives, and had there made him take a solemn and fearful oath, but what avail oaths? Honour renders them superfluous, baseness violates them.
† b. Const. to, unto.
1548. Hall, Chron., 166. As his person was fearfull … to his adversaries present: so his name.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrimes, II. 1475. In the Southerne parts of Indostan, are great store of large white Apes, some I dare boldly say, as tall as our biggest Gray-hounds: They are fearefull as it should seeme to Birds that make their Nests in Trees, wherefore nature hath taught them this subtiltie to secure themselues, by building their little houses on the twigs of the vtmost boughs, there hanging like Purse-nets, to which the Apes cannot possibly come.
1658. Cleveland, Rustick Rampant, Wks. (1687), 418. A Glorious King, fearful to your Enemies.
c. Comb.; adverbially as in fearful-sounding.
1611. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. III., Schisme, 1064.
| If thou their metall by that touch-stone try | |
| Which fearfull-sounding from thy mouth doth fly. |
2. Applied to bad or annoying things in intensive sense. Cf. awful, terrible, dreadful, etc.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 39. The … fearefull stench of the unburied bodies.
1811. Lamb, Guy Faux. They make a fearful outcry against the violation of every principle of morality.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xvi. 112. He complained of fearful thirst.
1884. Christian Commw., 21 Feb., 440/1. Their fearful departures from Apostolic practice.
b. dial. Enormous in quantity.
1877. N. W. Linc. Gloss. ‘There ’s a fearful lot o’ apples t’ year.’
c. adv. = FEARFULLY. Obs. in educated use; in some dialects merely intensive = AWFUL.
1634. Sir T. Herbert, Trav., 8. In Angola the people are fearfull blacke.
1790. Mrs. Wheeler, Westmld. Dial. (1821), 66. He leakt es if he wor fearful weel pleast.
1862. Hamerton, Painter’s Camp, I. 42. ‘You see theyve heard tell … ’at there’s a feefil ’ansome young chap.’
II. subjectively.
3. Frightened, timorous, timid, apprehensive.
a. simply. Now somewhat rare.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, II. 450. Criseyde … was be ferfulleste wyght That myght he.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. vi. (1495), 752. The female lambes ben … more ferefull than the male.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xv. 361. ‘Ha, thef … how ferfull thou art now.’
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., I. ii. With their fearful tongues they shall confess.
a. 1628. Sir J. Beaumont, Bosworth F., 783.
| Gain thou some Hours to draw thy fearful Breath: | |
| To me ignoble Flight is worse than Death. |
1653. Walton, Angler, 52. Chubs … be a very fearful fish.
1672. Dryden, The Conquest of Granada, II. I. ii. But now my fearful people mutiny.
1702. Addison, Dialogues upon … Medals, x. (1727), 45.
| As when th’ impatient Greyhound slipt from far, | |
| Bounds o’er the glebe to catch the fearful Hare, | |
| She in her speed does all her safety lay: | |
| And he with double speed pursues the prsey. |
1773. Mrs. Chapone, Improv. Mind (1774), I. 111. As women are more fearful than men, perhaps this may be one reason why they are more vain than proud; whilst the other sex are oftener proud than vain.
1827. Keble, Chr. Year, 3rd Sunday in Lent.
| It was a fearful joy, I ween, | |
| To trace the Heathen’s toil. |
1831. Mrs. Shelley, Swiss Peasant, in ‘Keepsake,’ 125. His fearful family would count in agony the hours of his absence.
absol. c. 1400. Prymer (E.E.T.S.), 30. Seynte marie, socoure wrecchis; helpe feerful, and refresche þe soreuful!
b. Const. of (also to with inf.), or with clause introduced by lest or that.
c. 1360. Vern. MS. Min. Poems, 523.
| Þe lattor þou art of good worching | |
| Þe more feruol þou schalt be of bi-ginnyng. |
c. 1400. Beryn, 2970.
| Beryn & his company wer rayid & I-diȝte, | |
| And londit hem in botis, ferefull howe to spede. |
1605. Shaks., Lear, I. iv. 225.
| I … now grow fearefull | |
| By what your selfe too late have spoke and done, | |
| That you protect this course. |
1612. Davies, Why Ireland, etc., 270. In time of peace, the Irish are more fearefull to offend the Law, then the English, or any other Nation whatsoeuer.
1630. R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 101. Somewhat fearfull of our desperate wanderers.
1665. Hooke, Microgr., 207. As a man blindfolded would do his hands when he is fearfull of running against a wall.
1725. Pope, Odyss., VI. 173.
| But fearful to offend, by wisdom sway’d, | |
| At awful distance he accosts the maid. |
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest, x. Adeline, fearful of observation, directed Peter to run first to the abbey, and invent some excuse for his absence, if he had been missed.
1798. Webbe, in Owen, Wellesley’s Desp., 5. I am fearful that … an attack upon him now is more likely to end in discomfiture.
1887. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), I. iv. 204. This great minister’s knowledge of the queen’s temper … made him sometimes fearful to act.
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, i. She would have led me in a string … so fearful was she lest I should be polluted.
1879. C. R. Low, Afghan War, iii. 279. The Afghan Chief, fearful of trying an assault, determined to invest the place, and starve the garrison out.
† c. Anxious, concerned; with about, of indicating the object of anxiety or concern.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. iv. 13. His herte was fearfull aboute ye Arke of God.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., III. v. Thou art fearful of thy army’s strength.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. vi. 87. Edward shall be feareful of his life.
4. Of looks, words, etc.: Indicating or giving signs of fear or terror.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Esdras iii. 3. I beganne to speake fearfull wordes to the most hyest.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., V. iii. 180.
| The Lights burne blew. It is not dead midnight. | |
| Cold fearefull drops stand on my trembling flesh. |
1638. Chillingw., Relig. Prot., I. i. § 7. 35. A wavering and fearful assent.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, The Romance of the Forest, ii. As the blast shook the doors, Adeline often started, and threw a fearful glance around.
1814. Southey, Roderick, XIII. 119. Hasty, yet faltering in his fearful speech.
† 5. Cautious, wary. Obs.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 56. Fearefull in prosperytees and pacyent in aduersytees.
1640. Bp. Reynolds, Passions, ix. 79. It is fit, that in this case, considering the deceitfulnesse of things, and what a divers habit, Education or Hypocrisie hath wrought in many, betweene the out and inside of their Natures; that we should, I say, bring a fearefull judgement.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. xlviii. 58. The march of the reinforcement was tardy and fearful, and Manuel, without receiving a wound, cut his way through a squadron of five hundred Turks.
1791. Burke, App. Whigs, Wks. VI. 98. Our courts cannot be more fearful in suffering fictitious cases to be brought before them for eliciting their determination on a point of law, than prudent moralists are in putting extreme and hazardous cases of conscience upon emergencies not existing.
6. Full of awe or reverence.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxvii. (1611), 359. Not fill them with a kinde of fearefull admiration at the heauen.
1602. F. Davison, Psalme lxxxvi., in Farr, S. P. Eliz. (1845), II. 323.
| In knotts, to be loosed never, | |
| Knitt my heart to thee for ever, | |
| That I to thy name may beare | |
| Fearfull loue and louing feare. |
1879. Farrar, St. Paul (1883), 332. Paul saw in him the spirit of loving and fearful duty.
