Aw"ful (?), a.
1.
Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling; terrible; as, an awful scene.
"The hour of Nature's
awful throes."
Hemans.
2.
Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence, or with fear and admiration; fitted to inspire reverential fear; profoundly impressive.
Heaven's awful Monarch.
Milton.
3.
Struck or filled with awe; terror-stricken.
[Obs.]
A weak and awful reverence for antiquity.
I. Watts.
4.
Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding.
[Obs.]
Thrust from the company of awful men.
Shak.
5.
Frightful; exceedingly bad; great; -- applied intensively; as, an awful bonnet; an awful boaster.
[Slang]
Syn. -- See Frightful.
© Webster 1913.