Awful vs Insufferable - What's the difference?
awful | insufferable | Related terms |
Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling, terrible.
Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
*, I.56:
* 1819 , Lord Byron, Don Juan , II.143:
Struck or filled with awe.
(obsolete) Terror-stricken.
Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding.
Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
Very bad.
(colloquial) Very, extremely; as, an awful big house.
Not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure.
{{quote-Fanny Hill, part=3
, kept up by the pain I had endur'd in the course of the engagement, from the insufferable size of his weapon, tho' it was not as yet in above half its length.}}
* , Lady Susan , ch. 22:
* 1894 , , The Coxon Fund , ch. 4:
* 1913 , , The Custom of the Country , ch. 13:
* 2011 June 7, "
Awful is a related term of insufferable.
As adjectives the difference between awful and insufferable
is that awful is oppressing with fear or horror; appalling, terrible while insufferable is not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure.As an adverb awful
is (colloquial) very, extremely; as, an awful big house.awful
English
Alternative forms
* awfull (archaic)Adjective
(en-adj)- God ought not to be commixed in our actions, but with awful reverence, and an attention full of honour and respect.
- And then she stopped, and stood as if in awe / (For sleep is awful ).
- an awful bonnet
- I have learnt an awful amount today.
- My socks smell awful .
Usage notes
* Nouns to which "awful" is often applied: day, truth, time, place, moment, mess, night, news, state, situation, smell, thought, person, pain, movie, consequence, crime, fate, death, tragedy, man, event, disease, story, condition, mistake, taste, picture, year, calamity, doom, film, catastrophe, secret, performance, storm, end, week, shape, choice.Synonyms
* See alsoAdverb
(-)See also
* awfully.External links
* *insufferable
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- This is insufferable ! My dearest friend, I was never so enraged before,and must relieve myself by writing to you. . . . Guess my astonishment, and vexation.
- Saltram was incapable of keeping the engagements which, after their separation, he had entered into with regard to his wife, a deeply wronged, justly resentful, quite irreproachable and insufferable person.
- Marvell . . . thought Peter a bore in society and an insufferable nuisance on closer terms.
Chaos in Syria," Time :
- The oppressive heat has become insufferable in Syria — and as the temperature climbs, emotions get harder to contain.