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Webster 1913 Edition


Awe

Awe

(a̤)
,
Noun.
[OE.
aȝe
,
aghe
, fr. Icel.
agi
; akin to AS.
ege
,
ōga
, Goth.
agis
, Dan.
ave
chastisement, fear, Gr.
ἄχοσ
pain, distress, from the same root as E.
ail
. √3. Cf.
Ugly
.]
1.
Dread; great fear mingled with respect.
[Obs. or Obsolescent]
His frown was full of terror, and his voice
Shook the delinquent with such fits of
awe
.
Cowper.
2.
The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence.
There is an
awe
in mortals’ joy,
A deep mysterious fear.
Keble.
To tame the pride of that power which held the Continent in
awe
.
Macaulay.
The solitude of the desert, or the loftiness of the mountain, may fill the mind with
awe
– the sense of our own littleness in some greater presence or power.
C. J. Smith.
To stand in awe of
,
to fear greatly; to reverence profoundly.
Syn. – See
Reverence
.

Awe

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Awed
([GREEK]);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Awing
.]
To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread.
That same eye whose bend doth
awe
the world.
Shakespeare
His solemn and pathetic exhortation
awed
and melted the bystanders.
Macaulay.

Webster 1828 Edition


Awe

AWE

,
Noun.
aw.
[Gr. to be astonished.]
1.
Fear mingled with admiration or reverence; reverential fear.
Stand in awe and sin not. Ps. 4.
2.
Fear; dread inspired by something great, or terrific.

AWE

,
Verb.
T.
To strike with fear and reverence; to influence by fear, terror or respect; as, his majesty awed them into silence.

Definition 2024


awe

awe

English

Noun

awe (uncountable)

  1. A feeling of fear and reverence.
    • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 172:
      Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.
  2. A feeling of amazement.
    • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter IV
      For several minutes no one spoke; I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as was I. All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously transported through ether to an unknown world.

Translations

Derived terms

Verb

awe (third-person singular simple present awes, present participle awing or aweing, simple past and past participle awed)

  1. (transitive) To inspire fear and reverence in.
    • 1922, Michael Arlen, chapter 1/1/3, in Piracy: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
      That large room had always awed Ivor: even as a child he had never wanted to play in it, for all that it was so limitless, the parquet floor so vast and shiny and unencumbered, the windows so wide and light with the fairy expanse of Kensington Gardens.
  2. (transitive) To control by inspiring dread.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams


Mapudungun

Adverb

awe (using Raguileo Alphabet)

  1. quickly, promptly.
  2. soon

Synonyms

References

  • Wixaleyiñ: Mapucezugun-wigkazugun pici hemvlcijka (Wixaleyiñ: Small Mapudungun-Spanish dictionary), Beretta, Marta; Cañumil, Dario; Cañumil, Tulio, 2008.

Western Arrernte

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /awə/

Interjection

awe

  1. yes