From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
awful
adj 1: exceptionally bad or displeasing; "atrocious taste";
"abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful
manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible
handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into
the room" [syn: atrocious, abominable, dreadful,
painful, terrible, unspeakable]
2: causing fear or dread or terror; "the awful war"; "an awful
risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that
London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the
headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it
once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling";
"horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse"
[syn: dire, direful, {dread(a)}, dreaded,
dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening,
horrendous, horrific, terrible]
3: offensive or even (of persons) malicious; "in a nasty mood";
"a nasty accident"; "a nasty shock"; "a nasty smell"; "a
nasty trick to pull"; "Will he say nasty things at my
funeral?"- Ezra Pound [syn: nasty] [ant: nice]
4: inspired by a feeling of fearful wonderment or reverence;
"awed by the silence"; "awful worshippers with bowed
heads" [syn: awed]
5: inspiring awe or admiration or wonder; "New York is an
amazing city"; "the Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring
sight"; "the awesome complexity of the universe"; "this
sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some
hidden soul beneath"- Melville; "Westminster Hall's awing
majesty, so vast, so high, so silent" [syn: amazing,
awe-inspiring, awesome, awing]
adv : used as intensifiers; "terribly interesting"; "I'm awful
sorry" [syn: terribly, awfully, frightfully]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Awful \Aw"ful\, a.
1. Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling; terrible; as,
an awful scene. "The hour of Nature's awful throes."
--Hemans.
[1913 Webster]
2. Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence, or with
fear and admiration; fitted to inspire reverential fear;
profoundly impressive.
[1913 Webster]
Heaven's awful Monarch. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. Struck or filled with awe; terror-stricken. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
A weak and awful reverence for antiquity. --I.
Watts.
[1913 Webster]
4. Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Thrust from the company of awful men. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
5. Frightful; exceedingly bad; great; -- applied intensively;
as, an awful bonnet; an awful boaster. [Slang]
[1913 Webster]
Syn: See Frightful.
[1913 Webster]