dire

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dire

(dīr)

adj. dir·er, dir·est

1. Warning of or having dreadful or terrible consequences; calamitous: a dire economic forecast; dire threats.

2. Urgent; desperate: in dire need; dire poverty.

[Latin dīrus, fearsome, terrible; akin to Greek deinos.]

dire′ly adv.

dire′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.

dire

(daɪə)

adj (usually prenominal)

1. Also: direful disastrous; fearful

2. desperate; urgent: a dire need.

3. foreboding disaster; ominous: a dire warning.

[C16: from Latin dīrus ominous, fearful; related to Greek deos fear]

ˈdirely adv

ˈdireness n

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

dire

(daɪ^ər)

adj. dir•er, dir•est.

1. causing or involving great fear or suffering; terrible.

2. indicating trouble, disaster, or the like: dire predictions.

3. urgent; desperate: in dire need.

[1560–70; < Latin dīrus fearful, unlucky]

dire′ly, adv.

dire′ness, n.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.	1.	dire - fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless; "a desperate illness"; "on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel"- G.C.Marshall; "a dire emergency" desperate critical - being in or verging on a state of crisis or emergency; "a critical shortage of food"; "a critical illness"; "an illness at the critical stage"
	2.	dire - causing fear or dread or terror; "the awful war"; "an awful risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling"; "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse" direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, terrible, awful, horrific, fearful alarming - frightening because of an awareness of danger

dire

adjective

1. desperate, pressing, crying, critical, terrible, crucial, alarming, extreme, awful, appalling, urgent, cruel, horrible, disastrous, grim, dreadful, gloomy, fearful, dismal, drastic, catastrophic, ominous, horrid, woeful, ruinous, calamitous, cataclysmic, portentous, godawful (slang), exigent, bodeful the dire predicament of the refugees

2. terrible, awful, appalling, dreadful, abysmal, frightful, godawful (slang) a book of verse which ranged from the barely tolerable to the utterly dire

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

dire

adjective

1. Portending future disaster:

apocalyptic, apocalyptical, baneful, direful, fateful, fire-and-brimstone, grave, hellfire, ominous, portentous, unlucky.

2. Causing or able to cause fear:

appalling, direful, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, formidable, frightful, ghastly, redoubtable, scary, terrible, tremendous.

3. Compelling immediate attention:

burning, crying, emergent, exigent, imperative, instant, pressing, urgent.

4. So serious as to be at the point of crisis or necessary to resolve a crisis:

acute, climacteric, critical, crucial, desperate.

Translations

رَهيب، مُفْزِع، مُنْذِر بِكارِثَه

hrozný

forfærdeligrisikabel

grässlich

atroz espantoso extremo funesto nefasto

hirveäkamalakauhea

extrême funeste sinistre terrible

hræîilegur, ógnòrunginn

spaventoso urgente necessit...

drausmīgsšausmīgs

gevaarlijkomineusonheilspellend sinister verschrikkelijk

horrível terrível

korkunç müthiş

可怕的

dire

[daɪəʳ] ADJ (direr (superl))

1. (= terrible) [event, consequences, results] → nefasto, funesto; [situation] → desesperado; [warning, prediction] → alarmante; [poverty] → extremo
to be in dire need of sth → necesitar algo desesperadamente
to be in dire straits → estar en un serio aprieto or apuro

2. (= awful) [film, book] → pésimo, malísimo

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

dire

[ˈdaɪə^r] adj

(= disastrous) [consequences] → terrible, désastreux/euse

(= extreme) [poverty] → extrême
to be in dire need of sth → avoir un besoin urgent de qch
to be in dire straits (financially) → être dans une situation désespérée

(pejorative) (= awful) → affreux/euse

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

dire

adj

(= serious) consequences → verheerend; warning, prediction, threat → unheilvoll; effects → katastrophal; situation → miserabel; (= desperate) → verzweifelt; the dire state of the property market → die miserable Lage auf dem Immobilienmarkt; in dire poverty → in äußerster Armut; to do something out of dire necessity → etw aus dringender Notwendigkeit tun; to be in dire need of something → etw dringend brauchen; to be in dire straits → in einer ernsten Notlage sein; the economy is in dire straits → die Wirtschaftslage ist katastrophal

(inf: = awful) → mies (inf); the standard is pretty dire → das Niveau ist unter aller Kritik (inf)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

dire

[ˈdaɪəʳ] adj (warning) → minaccioso/a; (consequences) → disastroso/a; (event) → terribile; (poverty) → nero/a
dire necessity → dura necessità
in dire straits → nei guai

dire

(ˈdaiə) adjective

dreadful; perilous.

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

He was capable of exposing the rival whom he hated to the infamy and torture of a public accusation of murder; but, in the event of an adverse verdict, he shrank before the direr cruelty of letting him be hanged.

View in context

Frequently appended to each installment is a "synposis of preceding chapters" for those who have not read them, but a direr need is a synposis of succeeding chapters for those who do not intend to read

View in context

While talking to newsmen, the protesting woman said that her father-in-law has attempted to sexually abuse her several times and on her refusal her father-in-law and brother-in-law are issuing direr threats to her.

Woman accuses her father-in-law of attempting to sexually abuse her

Dozens of fires broke out in the South after incendiary balloons were launched from the Gaza Strip, a situation made direr by the extreme heat wave that hit the country.

Flaming Gaza Balloons Threaten to Ignite Violence

While the rest of the world must be duly alarmed about companies such as Huawei, perhaps even direr is the way that the authoritarian Chinese government is using such technology to surveil and capture data on the complete populace within its own territory.

Do Huawei and Chinese High-Tech companies pose a threat?

Although the American commercial model is in many ways just as degenerative and repressive as the Russian authoritarian model, the situation in Russia is, without a doubt, substantially direr. In fact, according to Reporters Without Borders's latest regional report, two-thirds of the post-Soviet countries ranked 150 or lower in the index, with scores that continue to plummet.

Between the White House and the Kremlin: A Comparative Analysis of Afghan and Tajik Media

While some are there under temporary circumstances, and some belong to the migrant mothers who live and work there-employed by Nicole and thus granted residency by the government-many come from much direr situations, including abusive homes and families with injecting drug users.

Spotlight on: Harmony Home Foundation, a sanctuary in Taiwan

After all, we know that there are so many Filipinos in need and their situation can get even direr during the Christmas season.

Red Cross, a pillar of hope

Though a few countries have developed different manufacturing industries, those have seen ebbs and flows based on what happens in the main export earner, with economic reforms being half-heartedly taken and postponed when ramifications could be direr.

The Middle East economies catch the Dutch Disease

I assure you the economic condition is direr than you assume.

Mr Khan's new chessboard

With statistics such as these that grow direr every day, the words of an ancient biblical text, "Would that all people of the Lord were prophets," are like a scream in the night piercing the silence of a slumbering world --a world too groggy to realize that our neighbor's terrible plight will soon become our own reality if we do not work together to change the collision course we are traveling.