awful

Etymology

From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, aȝefull, equivalent to awe + -ful. Compare Old English eġeful, eġefull (“terrifying; awful”).

adj

1. Very bad.
   The smell of my socks is awful.
   We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.
2. Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
   an awful bonnet
   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
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
4. (now rare) Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
   Alternative form: awe-ful
   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
5. (now rare) Struck or filled with awe or reverence.
6. (obsolete) Terror-stricken.

adv

1. (colloquial) Awfully; dreadfully; terribly.
   The race was run, and the dog ran "awful". 21 Jan 1933, The Sydney Sportsman, NSW, page 1
2. (colloquial, US, Canada) Very, extremely.
   That's an awful big house.
   She seemed awful nice when I met her yesterday.
   He was blubbering away something awful.