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.
AWFULLY
Aw"ful*ly, adv.
1. In an awful manner; in a manner to fill with terror or awe; fearfully; reverently.
2. Very; excessively. [Slang]
AWFULNESS
Aw"ful*ness, n.
1. The quality of striking with awe, or with reverence; dreadfulness; solemnity; as, the awfulness of this sacred place. The awfulness of grandeur. Johnson.