Etymology From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, aȝefull, equivalent to awe + -ful. Compare Old English eġeful, eġefull (“terrifying; awful”). The “very bad” sense is a pejorative semantic shift from the original sense of “awe-inspiring”.
We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.
2
Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
I have learnt an awful amount today.
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, →OCLC, PC, scene: Normandy SR-2 AI Core Room:
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“[…] I cook a lot. I make an awful lot of food. Jason thinks I must be cooking for an army sometimes,” she says, […]2010 November 14, Barry Egan, “Nadine Coyle: Insatiable of Derry”, in Life (Sunday Independent), Dublin, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 15, column 4:
3
Dated Causing fear or horror; appalling, terrible.
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:
At our old pastimes in the hall We gambol’d, making vain pretence Of gladness, with an awful sense Of one mute Shadow watching all.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 48:
4
Archaic Awe-inspiring; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
As I am seen could I but gaze on Thee / Awful in majesty and royal might1889, Harriet McEwen Kimball, Poems, "Omniscience":
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 […], →OCLC:
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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. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:
Ireland, Especially, With "for" Prone to a particular temptation.
"It's her imagination, that's what it is," Millie said. "She's awful for imagining things, Wilfred agreed with me."1945, James Hanley, Crilley, and Other Stories:
Tommy was just an awful man for the paper - couldn't get enough of the stuff! He'd have had the very Yellow Pages down him!2022, Lisa McGee, Derry Girls, season 3, episode 7:
Etymology From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, aȝefull, equivalent to awe + -ful. Compare Old English eġeful, eġefull (“terrifying; awful”). The “very bad” sense is a pejorative semantic shift from the original sense of “awe-inspiring”.
“They say the Battery's awful bad,” and he hummed dolorously[.]1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 144: