dismayful

English

Etymology

From dismay +‎ -ful.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪfʊl

Adjective

dismayful (comparative more dismayful, superlative most dismayful)

1. (obsolete) Terrifying

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:frightening

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

     And much dismay'd with that dismayful Sight,
     That back she would have turn'd for great Affright

   • 1839, Thomas Gordon Hake, The Piromides: A Tragedy, page 23:

     O let despair Haunt unbless'd souls; let its dismayful looks Affright not thee, thou source of clearest hope, Which in one stream thro' earthly dullness flows Into this glad receptacle, the heart.

   • 1876, George MacDonald, Thomas Wingfold, Curate:

     Add to this that—thought of all most dismayful!—he had himself to convince first, the worst dragon of all to kill, for bare honesty's sake, in his own field; while, all the time he was arming and fighting — like the waves of the flowing tide in a sou'-wester, Sunday came in upon Sunday, roaring on his flat, defenceless shore,

   • 1886 July, William Warren Potter, “Some Observations on the Uterine Sound, with Especial Reference to its Place in Gynæcological Therapeutics”, in Buffalo Medical and Surgical Journal and Reporter, volume 26, number 12, page 546:

     I, myself, have observed—and I dare say it is within the experience of many here present to affirm the like—a man of that large experience which pertains to years of practice, boldly invade the uterine cavity with the sound, twisting it hither and yon with a force and careless abandon to its possible consequences, that not only utterly amazed me at the time, but which, on reflection afterwards, brought a shudder of horror and a dismayful foreboding as to the resultant mischief which had already been produced, or which it were likely to cause.

2. (obsolete) Dismaying; disheartening.
   • 1612, George Chapman, Epicedium; or, a Funderal Song:

     The most unvaluable and dismayful loss of my most dear and heroical Patron, Prince Henry, hath so stricken all my spirits to the earth, that I will never more dare to look up to any greatness; but resolving the little rest of my poor life to obscurity, and the shadow of his death, prepare ever heareafter for the light of Heaven.

   • 1862, S. N., “Martin Luther-The Reformation”, in The British Controversialist and Literary Magazine, volume 2, page 8:

     Engrossed in the rich, transparent beauty, pathos, and wisdom of Virgil, and the living rhetoric of Cicero's elaborate pleadings, as well as those other classic writers of antiquity, who, amidst outward barbarism, darkness, and dismayful ignorance, then brought to the student's lonely heart the solemnized civilization of the past, the light, fragrance, and magic of genius, and the hope of a time coming to him, too, when the world shall listen to his voice, and he may win admiration, or draw tears, by the out-throwing of his thoughts—Luther invigorated his spirit by his student toils, enriched his mind by the noble sayings, and graphic images, of orator and poet, and fed his ambition for the attainment of the marvellous faculty of power, which literary culture gives, by training his unworn and tender youth—"To scorn delights, and live laborious days;"

   • 1871, anonymous author, Opportunities:

     No announcement could have been more dismayful; but this time Matilda said nothing.

   • 1884, Henry Maudsley, Body and Will, page 302:

     But that is a dismayful expectation to entertain concerning the 'I,' the 'ego' —the ens unum et semper cognitum in omnibus notitiis— of which they thus protest we have more or less clear consciousness in every exercise of intelligence.

3. (obsolete) Dismayed; full of disappointment or low spirits.
   • 1807, Francisco de Morais, ‎Robert Southey, Palmerin of England - Volume 3, page 6:

     But as the signs that day were different from what they had been at any former time when this adventure had been essayed, the city itself was overspread with so thick and black a cloud, and filled with sounds so dolorous and dismayful, that no one had either judgment so free, or heart so strong, as to be exempt from the fear which these terrors occasioned.

   • 1850, William Scoresby (the Younger), Jehovah glorified in His Works., page 20:

     and then to realise, at the last solemn account, an utter, hopeless, dismayful disappointment, and to find, that of his vast benefactions, by intellectual mastery, to the world, he has himself saved nothing; that whilst gaining the admiration of the whole world, he has lost his own soul!

   • 1858, Susan Warner, The Hills of the Shatemuc, page 31:

     "Boots?" —said his mother, in an accent that sounded a little dismayful.

Derived terms

• dismayfully