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Drear vs Dread - What's the difference?

drear | dread |

In obsolete terms the difference between drear and dread

is that drear is gloom; sadness while dread is fury; dreadfulness.

As a verb dread is

to fear greatly.

drear

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (poetic) Dreary.
  • * 1794, , lines 1-2
    • Earth raised up her head
    From the darkness dread and drear ,
  • * 1874 ,
    • I spoke, perplexed by something in the signs
    Of desolation I had seen and heard
    In this drear pilgrimage to ruined shrines:
  • * 1922 , , XXVIII, lines 1-2
    • Now dreary dawns the eastern light,
    And fall of eve is drear ,

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) Gloom; sadness.
  • *1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , VI.2:
  • *:She thankt him deare / Both for that newes he did to her impart, / And for the courteous care which he did beare / Both to her love and to her selfe in that sad dreare .

    • Anagrams

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    dread

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fear greatly.
  • To anticipate with fear.
    • I'm dreading getting the results of the test, as it could decide my whole life.
  • * 1877 , (Anna Sewell), (Black Beauty) Chapter 22[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Black_Beauty/22]
    • Day by day, hole by hole our bearing reins were shortened, and instead of looking forward with pleasure to having my harness put on as I used to do, I began to dread it.
  • To be in dread, or great fear.
  • * Bible, Deuteronomy i. 29
    • Dread not, neither be afraid of them.

    Derived terms

    * dreadable * dreadworthy

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror.
  • * Tillotson
    • the secret dread of divine displeasure
  • * Shakespeare
    • the dread of something after death
  • * '>citation
  • Reverential or respectful fear; awe.
  • * Bible, Genesis ix 2.
    • The fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth.
  • * Shakespeare
    • His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, / The attribute to awe and majesty, / Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.
  • Somebody or something dreaded.
  • (obsolete) A person highly revered.
  • * Spenser
    • Una, his dear dread
  • (obsolete) Fury; dreadfulness.
    • (Spenser)
  • A Rastafarian.
  • (chiefly, in the plural) dreadlock

    • Adjective

    (er)
  • Terrible; greatly feared.
  • (archaic) Awe-inspiring; held in fearful awe.
  • *

    • See also

    * dreadlocks * dreadnought

    Anagrams

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