How to Use dreadful in a Sentence

dreadful

adjective
  • Those children have such dreadful manners.
  • Her performance was absolutely dreadful.
  • Can the Chicago Cubs build off it to close a dreadful May?
    Karie Angell Luc, Chicago Tribune, 29 May 2023
  • The hosts are 4-for-8 in the second half after a dreadful first half of shooting.
    Michael Casagrande | McAsagrande@al.com, al, 15 Feb. 2023
  • At the golden hour, the corn stalks gleamed and the onset of fall seemed a little less dreadful.
    Sofia Jeremias, The Salt Lake Tribune, 13 Sep. 2023
  • WhatsApp has had a great 2021—despite its dreadful start to the year.
    Zak Doffman, Forbes, 29 Dec. 2021
  • But Rangers pitchers have been dreadful at that aspect of the game.
    Dallas News, 16 Aug. 2022
  • It’s been a dreadful year — OK, few years — for romcoms.
    Marlow Stern, Rolling Stone, 21 Apr. 2023
  • The thought that the Orioles could spend the next couple of months with none of those arms taking the mound for them is a dreadful one.
    Nathan Ruiz, Baltimore Sun, 14 Apr. 2022
  • Not all of the replies were sarcastic, dark or dreadful.
    Caitlin O'Kane, CBS News, 31 Jan. 2024
  • The same investors who thought the stock market was such a dreadful place last year have changed their tune.
    Michael Joseph, Fortune, 14 Sep. 2023
  • And Quinn, for the rare time, is not dreadful annoyance to us as readers.
    Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Dec. 2023
  • On a night where the special teams were dreadful, the biggest disaster came with 4:41 left in the game.
    Rob Reischel, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2022
  • It's been a dreadful year for bankers who specialize in IPOs.
    Alex Frangos, WSJ, 19 Sep. 2022
  • After a dreadful start, the Pittsburgh Steelers have won three of four.
    Childs Walker, Baltimore Sun, 9 Dec. 2022
  • Once again this winter, Lopez is feeling a dreadful sense of déjà vu.
    Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2023
  • Wearing a suit in summer doesn’t have to be a dreadful affair.
    Bernd Fischer, Men's Health, 20 July 2022
  • That’s why the dreadful wait has given him a new perspective.
    Shane Young, Forbes, 27 May 2022
  • Losing Warren to the IL is another hit for the dreadful Reds bullpen.
    Bobby Nightengale, The Enquirer, 5 July 2022
  • If that sounds dreadful, pay up for a preferred seat like Mrs. Keeler did.
    Dawn Gilbertson, WSJ, 8 June 2022
  • Sunday’s win over the Browns was a bit of a silver lining on a dreadful, gloomy and cold winter day.
    Charlie Goldsmith, The Enquirer, 7 Jan. 2024
  • In addition, Los Angeles has been dreadful on the ground and will now face the best rush defense in the league.
    Doug Ziefel, Chicago Tribune, 3 Oct. 2022
  • Our overtime record was dreadful last year because of it.
    Dallas News, 18 Mar. 2022
  • That was all before the dreadful things that happened on 7th of October, which seems a long time ago.
    Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 17 Nov. 2023
  • She’s joined in the raunchy fun by Billy Porter’s character Ocean, who leads the school’s choir into song about the dreadful years ahead.
    Kalia Richardson, Rolling Stone, 20 Oct. 2023
  • There have been months when the lineup is so dreadful, a wish list of alternatives can be fun to write.
    Erik Kain, Forbes, 26 Dec. 2021
  • The Aztecs survived 80-75 after trailing late in Laramie, and the Cowboys have gone back to being dreadful.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 17 Jan. 2023
  • Melton, meanwhile, entered the game mired in a dreadful slump, with just one hit in 13 regional at-bats.
    Joe Freeman, oregonlive, 6 June 2022
  • After soaring in Biden's first year in office, markets are off to a dreadful start to 2022.
    Matt Egan, CNN, 25 Jan. 2022
  • The weather is dreadful even by English standards, and the harbor-dwellers have rushed down to the beach, anxious to alert a ship in distress.
    Jason Farago, New York Times, 7 Apr. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dreadful.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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