dread

verb

1. (transitive)To fear greatly.
2. To anticipate with fear.

   “I'm dreading getting the results of the test, as it could decide my whole life.”

   “Day by day, hole by hole our bearing reins were shortened, and instead of looking forward with pleasure to having my harness put on as I used to do, I began to dread it.”

3. (intransitive)To be in dread, or great fear.

   “Dread not, neither be afraid of them.”

4. (transitive)To style (the hair) into dreadlocks.

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror.

   “My visit to the doctor is filling me with dread.”

   “the secret dread of divine displeasure”

   “the dread of something after death”

   “They shared a common dread that he would begin moaning.”

   “In 1928 [Martin] Heidegger succeeded [Edmund] Husserl to take a chair at Freiburg and in his inaugural lecture made a pronouncement that earned him a reputation as an archetypal metaphysician with his claim that our awareness of people as a whole depends on our experience of dread in the face of nothingness.”

2. (countable, uncountable)Reverential or respectful fear; awe.

   “The fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth.”

   “His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, / The attribute to awe and majesty, / Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.”

3. (countable, uncountable)Somebody or something dreaded.
4. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)A person highly revered.

   “Una, his dear dread”

5. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)Fury; dreadfulness.

   “The mightie ones, affrayd of every chaunges dread”

6. (countable, uncountable)A Rastafarian.
7. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, in-plural, slang, uncountable)Clipping of dreadlock.

   “Jesus Christ had dreads / So shake 'em / I ain't got none / But I'm planning on growing some.”

8. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, historical, slang, uncountable)Clipping of dreadnought.

   “The Royal Navy sent six dreads and four BCs to intercept the German raiding force.”

adj

1. Terrible; greatly feared; dreaded.

   “With cat-like tread / Upon our prey we steal / In silence dread / Our cautious way we feel”

   “I even remember thinking that no human being would go down that dread path again.”

   “1980, Donald Fagen; Walter Becker (lyrics and music), "Glamour Profession" in Gaucho, track 3: "Jack with his radar / Stalking the dread moray eel"”

2. (archaic)Awe-inspiring; held in fearful awe.

   “The acts made in the first Parliament of our most high and dread soveraigne Charles [I], by the grace of God, King of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland, defender of the faith, &c. […] [book title]”