adjective

• 1Feeling or showing fear or anxiety.

  ‘they are fearful of the threat of nuclear war’

  More example sentences

  • ‘he's fearful that his career is over’
  • ‘There's no question that at the time of the abduction she was in fear and was fearful for a period of time.’
  • ‘For example, over the past two decades I was excessively fearful of inflation.’
  • ‘Everyone is fearful for his future, and fear leads people to do amazing, extraordinary things.’
  • ‘Often the most panicked people are bystanders who become extremely fearful but have no outlet for that energy.’
  • ‘When this area of our life is threatened we become fearful and disillusioned.’
  • ‘Just reading that list of cautions makes me fearful about ever leaving my two daughters home by themselves.’
  • ‘The current, ever-present threat of an imminent war can often make people feel fearful and powerless.’
  • ‘Some farmers are fearful that they are not being properly rewarded for the quality of the milk they produce.’
  • ‘When you know who you are, there's no need to feel weird or threatened or fearful of people who aren't exactly like you.’
  • ‘I have felt powerless, disgusted, frustrated, horrified and even fearful this week, all in equal measure.’
  • ‘Granted, most people would be afraid to interfere, fearful of the consequences.’
  • ‘His characters are guilty and fearful, their predicaments horrendous.’
  • ‘She was horrified by this show of affection and fearful of its consequences.’
  • ‘Are you really fearful of being misinterpreted or are you just afraid to stand up for your constituents?’
  • ‘This lady points out her home here among the rubble, but she is afraid of being seen on camera, fearful of what may happen to her.’
  • ‘We stood locked in a battle of stares for a minute, my horrified expression gazing into her fearful one.’
  • ‘If we are fearful of the consequences of murder then we are not likely to carry out a murder and that is good and to be welcomed.’
  • ‘She saw the looks of fearful people, but what they were afraid of she didn't know.’
  • ‘But he's a timid child, fearful of water, heights, spiders, darkness and the great outdoors.’
  • ‘Players are tentative and nervous, fearful that one missed shot or ugly turnover will earn them a seat on the bench.’

  Synonyms

  afraid, frightened, scared, scared stiff, scared to death, terrified, petrified

  nervous, trembling, quaking, quivering, shrinking, cowering, cowed, daunted

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1Causing or likely to cause people to be afraid; horrifying.
     ‘a fearful accident’
     More example sentences

     • ‘To the outside world, Chernobyl stands as a fearful accident and a catalogue of gross errors.’
     • ‘It came to mind that Christians who encountered Paul would have found him shocking and fearful.’
     • ‘Economists nevertheless refuse to be alarmed by fearful prognoses of deflation.’
     • ‘The literature supports an Oedipal stage, but finds that a good superego is likely to come from a loving rather than a fearful relationship with a father.’
     • ‘When we are faced by a fearful situation it is human nature to hide our emotions behind a brave front and to smile when inside we are crying.’
     • ‘An Arab writer on the consequences of the Black Death for animals added another hideous dimension to our awareness of that fearful episode.’
     • ‘It did not gain that influence by producing timid and fearful programmes.’
     • ‘With fearful symmetry, ' terror ' has acquired a new meaning, too.’
     • ‘We are grieving not just for the dead but also for all our own fearful futures - the threat of war, more suffering and more fanatical hatred.’
     • ‘Bad experiences can lead to the development of fearful beliefs about the future - fears the past will be repeated if we act the same way again.’
     • ‘There are no limits to our human ability to justify our fear for, in truth, the world is a fearful place.’
     • ‘In spite of his fear he decides to accompany his master on this fearful adventure.’
     • ‘So we are intended to be relieved of the fear that our dying need be a fearful experience.’
     • ‘Call it by its real name and much of the fearful power of the thing is lost.’
     • ‘Among the nations there are fearful wars and dreadful diseases.’
     Synonyms

     terrible, dreadful, awful, appalling, frightful, ghastly, horrific, horrible, horrifying, horrendous, very bad, terribly bad, shocking, atrocious, abominable, hideous, monstrous, dire, grim, unspeakable, gruesome, grievous, lamentable, distressing, harrowing, alarming

     View synonyms

• 2informal Very great.

  More example sentences

  • ‘he was in a fearful hurry’

  Synonyms

  very great, great, extreme, real, dreadful

  View synonyms