dire·ful

(dīr′fəl)

adj.

1. Inspiring dread; terrible.

2. Foreshadowing evil or disaster; ominous.

dire′ful·ly adv.

dire′ful·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

direfully

(ˈdaɪəfʊlɪ)

adv

literary or jocular in a direful manner

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

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Adv.

direfully - in a direful manner; "seeing himself trapped, he cried out direfully"

References in classic literature

"If you had made the voyages we have," he said, "you wouldn't much care about the weather." But nevertheless, traveller as he was, he passed the night direfully sick in his carriage, where his courier tended him with brandy-and- water and every luxury.

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Be it what it may, now, it was so direfully impressed at tea-time by Mr.

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