Adjective

(en-adj)

Dreadful; causing alarm and fear.

Formidable, powerful.

* 1883: (Robert Louis Stevenson), (Treasure Island)

and there was even a party of the younger men who pretended to admire him, calling him a "true sea-dog," and "real old salt," and such-like names, and saying there was the sort of man that made England terrible at sea.

Intense; extreme in degree or extent.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=18 citation , passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?}}

Unpleasant; disagreeable.

* , chapter=12

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=To Edward […] he was terrible , nerve-inflaming, poisonously asphyxiating. He sat rocking himself in the late Mr. Churchill's swing chair, smoking and twaddling.}}

Very bad; lousy.

* {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 26, author=Tasha Robinson, work=The Onion AV Club

, title= Film: Reviews: The Pirates! Band Of Misfits , passage=The openly ridiculous plot has The Pirate Captain (Hugh Grant) scheming to win the Pirate Of The Year competition, even though he’s a terrible pirate, far outclassed by rivals voiced by Jeremy Piven and Salma Hayek.}}

Adjective

(en-adj)

Causing pain or distress, either physical or mental.

Afflicted or suffering with pain (of a body part or, formerly, of a person).

Requiring effort or labor; difficult, laborious.

* 1624 , John Smith, Generall Historie , in Kupperman 1988, p. 142:

The men bestow their times in fishing, hunting, warres, and such manlike exercises, scorning to be seene in any woman-like exercise, which is the cause that the women be very painefull , and the men often idle.

* 1843 , , Book 2, Ch. 2

For twenty generations, here was the earthly arena where painful living men worked out their life-wrestle