Awe
[ɔː] or [ɔ]
Definition
(noun.) an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration; 'he stared over the edge with a feeling of awe'.
(verb.) inspire awe in; 'The famous professor awed the undergraduates'.
Typist: Shelby--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Dread; great fear mingled with respect.
(n.) The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence.
(v. t.) To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread.
Edited by Blair
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Reverence, veneration, reverential fear.[2]. Dread, fearfulness.
v. a. Overawe, intimidate, frighten, affright, daunt, cow, inspire with awe.
Checked by Judith
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Fear, dread, veneration, reverence
ANT:Fearlessness, contempt, disrespect, familiarity, irreverence
Typist: Wanda
Definition
n. reverential fear or wonder: dread: (arch.) power to inspire awe.—v.t. to strike with or influence by fear.—adj. Awe′less without fear.—n. Awe′lessness.—adjs. Awe′some Aw′some (Scot.) full of awe: inspiring awe: weird dreadful.—v.t. Awe′-strike to strike with awe.—adjs. Awe′-struck struck or affected with awe; Aw′ful full of awe: dreadful: inspiring respect: expressive of awe: (slang) ugly: and as a mere intensive of anything.—adv. Aw′fully (also in slang merely = very).—n. Aw′fulness.
Editor: Theresa
Examples
- Whether from awe or pity, nobody raised the price on him. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- They were not more in awe of her than she of them. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- It moved every feeling of wonder and awe, that the picture of an omnipotent God warring with his creatures was capable of exciting. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- I have reason to remember this, and think of it with awe; for before I looked upon those two again, a stormy sea had risen to their feet. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- One eye was buried in the soft loam; the other, rolling sidewise, was fixed in awe upon the strange gyrations of Professor Porter. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- He fell back a few steps, and looked at me with an expression of compassionate curiosity, tempered by superstitious awe. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- His countenance was therefore fully displayed, and its expression was calculated to impress a degree of awe, if not of fear, upon strangers. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- He is taller by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court; which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- It was a rare one with his tutor; but when it came he had an awe of it. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- George was awe-struck at the force, the vehemence, the power, with which these broken sentences were uttered. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Nothing more they found, and it was a thoroughly awed and frightened group of savages which huddled around their king a few moments later. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
- She was disheartened by Lady Bertram's silence, awed by Sir Thomas's grave looks, and quite overcome by Mrs. Norris's admonitions. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- I asked in a whisper, half awed by the deep pervading hush. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- This method is neither so conclusive as the devotees say, nor so bad as the people who are awed by it would like to believe. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- I paused, even awed by the agitation he evinced; Yes, he said at length, rising and biting his lip, as he strove to curb his passion; Such am I! Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Even our soldiers were awed to silence; the music paused; the clang of arms was hushed. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- But they were awed as I had been, at the change of his appearance. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- She knew more than he did, and yet she listened with that hopeless expression of awed apprehension. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- Nay, with some persons those awes and terrors of youth last for ever and ever. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- Not a bad purchase for Rosedale, though: attracts attention, and awes the Western sight-seer. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
Typist: Rachel