dire
adjective
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Dire Straits and Furies
Dire and fury share a history in Roman mythology, as each of these words is connected to the Erinyes, the avenging and terrifying deities of ancient myth who tormented criminals. The Romans referred to these goddesses as either the Dirae or the Furiae. The former is from the Latin word dirus, from which dire is descended, and the latter comes from furere, from where we get fury. The word dire is often found in conjunction with straits; in dire straits is used of a situation that is very bad or difficult. Our records indicate that this phrase began to be used in English at the end of the 18th century, when it appeared in Francis Fawkes’s The Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius: “When now the heroes through the vast profound, Reach the dire straits with rocks encompass’d round.”
Synonyms
- baleful
- direful
- doomy
- foreboding
- ill
- ill-boding
- inauspicious
- menacing
- minatory
- ominous
- portentous
- sinister
- threatening
Example Sentences
Christopher Ketcham, Harper's, June 2008 Whether one is a lowly farmer or an urban worker, a student, professional, or a member of the elite, a meal is not complete unless rice is served to accompany the main viand of pork, fish, chicken, beef, vegetables or in the most dire circumstances, dry fish or salt. Georgina R. Encanto, Food, April 2000 All wild tigers are threatened with extinction, but Sumatran tigers are in especially dire straits because the world's zoos have only 235 of them in captive-breeding programs. Audubon, November-December 1998 The circumstances are now more dire than ever. Some analysts are issuing dire economic forecasts. They live in dire poverty. See More John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 7 Sep. 2022 The pound slid to its weakest level in close to four decades, weighed down by a dire economic outlook and the latest bout of U.S. dollar strength. Greg Ritchie, Fortune, 7 Sep. 2022 Extreme drought is the monitor’s second most dire category, behind only exceptional drought. Brian Amaral, BostonGlobe.com, 6 Sep. 2022 The Mississippi city of Jackson — the state’s capital city — is in the midst of a dire water crisis. Andy Meek, BGR, 3 Sep. 2022 Facing a dire forecast of record heat continuing through midweek, a state power official asked the public to observe a Flex Alert that was issued Saturday and extended into Sunday, the fifth consecutive day. Doug Smith, Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2022 Wenner also goes into frank detail for the first time about the dire health issues that plagued him in recent years and his difficult decision to sell Rolling to PMC in 2017. Jann S. Wenner, Rolling Stone, 2 Sep. 2022 Eight rural hospitals have shut down in Georgia over the past 10 years, and more than a dozen others face dire financial struggles, but news of the Atlanta closure brought the trend to the capital city — and the thick of the campaign trail. Timothy Pratt, ajc, 1 Sep. 2022 Solutions to the dire shortage range widely across the country. Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 1 Sep. 2022 See More Word History
borrowed from Latin dīrus "(of omens) exciting horror, awful, (of physical or nonphysical things) inspiring terror, dreadful," probably going back to *dweiro-, going back to Indo-European *du̯ei̯-ro- or *du̯ei̯-so-, adjectival derivatives of the verbal base *du̯ei- "fear" — more at deinonychus
Note: The regular outcome of pre-Latin *dweiros would be *bīrus in Latin, which has led to speculation that the word has been borrowed from another Italic language. This hypothesis appears to be supported by a remark in the expanded version of the commentary on the Aeneid by the grammarian Servius, that the word dīrus was used by the Sabines and Umbrians.
1565, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Phrases Containing dire
Kids Definition
dire
adjective
dire
adjective
Synonyms & Similar Words
- ominous
- sinister
- bleak
- menacing
- threatening
- direful
- darkening
- unfortunate
- portentous
- somber
- dark
- murky
- foreboding
- inauspicious
- ill
- lonely
- depressing
- minatory
- desolate
- baleful
- depressive
- ill-boding
- doomy
- unfavorable
- black
- dismal
- gray
- cold
- gloomy
- dim
- morbid
- cheerless
- dreary
- unpropitious
- hopeless
- troubled
- glum
- unpromising
- morose
- miserable
- lugubrious
- discouraging
- godforsaken
- drear
- lonesome
- grey
- disconsolate
- sullen
- forlorn
- disheartening
- saturnine
- comfortless
- sombre
- wretched
- plutonian
- elegiac
- sepulchral
- cloudy
- tenebrous
- funereal
- evil
- chill
- unlucky
- dreich
- malignant
- elegiacal
- sunless
- tenebrific
- malign
- ill-starred
- Cimmerian
- ill-fated
- star-crossed
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- favorable
- promising
- hopeful
- benign
- bright
- propitious
- auspicious
- prosperous
- golden
- encouraging
- unthreatening
- heartening
Synonyms & Similar Words
- terrifying
- frightening
- formidable
- horrible
- terrible
- scary
- alarming
- intimidating
- dread
- dreadful
- horrifying
- shocking
- fearful
- frightful
- horrendous
- ghastly
- startling
- direful
- troubling
- eerie
- fearsome
- gruesome
- forbidding
- creepy
- trying
- threatening
- redoubtable
- eery
- disturbing
- hair-raising
- spine-chilling
- daunting
- unnerving
- discouraging
- disconcerting
- disquieting
- hideous
- perturbing
- distressing
- demoralizing
- dismaying
- nightmarish
- appalling
- horrid
- awful
- weird
- grisly
- atrocious
- macabre
- monstrous
- bone-chilling
- grewsome
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- reassuring
- comforting
- calming
- soothing
- consoling
- relaxing
- inviting
- tranquillizing
- tranquilizing
- quieting
- nonthreatening
- lulling
- nonintimidating
- pacifying
Synonyms & Similar Words
- urgent
- acute
- exigent
- desperate
- critical
- intense
- pressing
- compelling
- serious
- imperative
- emergent
- crying
- immediate
- instant
- extreme
- imperious
- dangerous
- severe
- clamant
- necessitous
- precarious
- perilous
- importunate
- crucial
- hazardous
- burning
- life-or-death
- insistent
- demanding
- overriding
- life-and-death
- vital
- grave
- unstable
- explosive
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- trivial
- minor
- negligible
- noncritical
- unimportant
- incidental
- nonurgent
- stable
- safe
- nonthreatening
- low-pressure
Synonyms & Similar Words
- bleak
- depressing
- somber
- darkening
- dark
- depressive
- lonely
- desolate
- murky
- morbid
- cold
- solemn
- miserable
- lonesome
- dismal
- wretched
- gray
- gloomy
- depressed
- dreary
- sad
- blue
- glum
- cheerless
- black
- lugubrious
- morose
- drear
- forlorn
- godforsaken
- chill
- disconsolate
- sullen
- oppressive
- saturnine
- desperate
- comfortless
- funereal
- grey
- melancholy
- sombre
- cloudy
- plutonian
- grim
- elegiac
- tenebrous
- sepulchral
- unhappy
- dreich
- hopeless
- woeful
- elegiacal
- negative
- distressful
- sunless
- woebegone
- distressing
- tenebrific
- dispiriting
- dismaying
- dull
- dim
- upsetting
- discouraging
- lamentable
- menacing
- discomfiting
- dejected
- disheartening
- pessimistic
- despondent
- mournful
- mirthless
- Cimmerian
- inconsolable
- low
- hangdog
- sorrowful
- melancholic
- droopy
- down
- dour
- drab
- threatening
- plaintive
- colorless
- lowering
- lowery
- louring
- loury
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
- cheery
- bright
- cheerful
- friendly
- festive
- comforting
- joyous
- optimistic
- joyful
- gay
- jolly
- cordial
- merry
- sunshiny
- buoyant
- hopeful
- blithe
- mirthful
- gay
- heartwarming
- encouraging
- cheering
- blithesome
- jocund
- lighthearted
- lightsome