Etymology From Middle English dredful, dredfull, dredeful (also dreful). By surface analysis, dread + -ful.
› Full of something causing dread, whether
1
Genuinely horrific, awful, or alarming; dangerous, risky.
"...Aunt Em will surely think something dreadful has happened to me, and that will make her put on mourning..."1900 May 17, L[yman] Frank Baum, chapter 23, in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Geo[rge] M[elvin] Hill Co., →OCLC:
2
Excessive Unpleasant, awful, very bad (also used as an intensifier).
Here some... Look dreadful gay in their own sparkling blood.1682, T. Creech's translation of Lucretius, De Natura Rerum, Book II, 52
[I]ndeed I began ſincerely to hate my ſelf for a Dog, a VVretch that had been a Thief, and a Murtherer; […] I vvent about vvith my Heart full of theſe Thoughts, little better than a diſtracted Fellovv; in ſhort, running headlong into the dreadfulleſt Deſpair, and premeditated nothing but hovv to rid my ſelf out of the VVorld; […] nothing lay upon my Mind for ſeveral Days, but to ſhoot my ſelf into the Head vvith my Piſtol.1720, [Daniel Defoe], The Life, Adventures, and Pyracies, of the Famous Captain Singleton, London: […] J[ohn] Brotherton, […], J[ohn] Graves […], A[nne] Dodd, […], and T[homas] Warner, […], →OCLC, page 331:
2 more examples
This time was most dreadful for Lilian. Thrown on her own resources and almost penniless, she maintained herself and paid the rent of a wretched room near the hospital by working as a charwoman, sempstress, anything.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
After a dreadful performance in the opening 45 minutes, they upped their game after the break...2011 December 10, Marc Higginson, “Bolton 1-2 Aston Villa”, in BBC Sport:
3
Obsolete Awesome, awe-inspiring, causing feelings of reverence.
Shame to the slothful and woe to the weak one. Death to the dreadful who turn to flee. Blood to the tearing, the talon’d, the beaked one. Timor Mortis are We.1958, T[erence] H[anbury] White, chapter VIII, in The Once and Future King, New York, N.Y.: G. P. Putnam's Sons, →ISBN, book I (The Sword in the Stone):
I'm sorry, Miz Terrigan. I'm dreadful sorry.2003, David Davis, Of Preachers and Pagans, page 199:
You don't look so dreadful poor in the face as you did a while back.2007, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Professor At The Breakfast Table, page 130:
1 more example
"No," she replied, coolly, "and I shall want my dinner dreadful bad afore I get it, I know. You don't often feel dreadful hungry, do you, sir?2015, Hesba Stretton, Jessica's first prayer: A Christian Fiction of Hesba Stretton: