dire

dire

adjective \ˈdī(-ə)r\

dir·erdir·est

Definition of DIRE

1

a : exciting horror <dire suffering>

b : dismal, oppressive <dire days>

2

: warning of disaster <a dire forecast>

3

a : desperately urgent <dire need>

b : extreme <dire poverty>

— dire·ly adverb

— dire·ness noun

Examples of DIRE

1. The circumstances are now more dire than ever.
2. Some analysts are issuing dire economic forecasts.
3. They live in dire poverty.
4. The alleged threat posed by Yellowstone's 3,600 buffalo came from the fact that they carry brucella, a bacterium that cycles harmlessly enough in Bison bison but has considerably more dire effects on cattle. —Christopher Ketcham, Harper's , June 2008
5. 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
6. 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

Origin of DIRE

Latin dirus; akin to Greek deinos terrifying, Sanskrit dveṣṭi he hates

First Known Use: 1565

Related to DIRE

Synonyms

baleful, ominous, direful, doomy, foreboding, ill, ill-boding, inauspicious, menacing, minatory, portentous, sinister, threatening

Antonyms

unthreatening

Related Words

black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dim, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, gloomy, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched; discouraging, disheartening, hopeless, unfavorable, unpromising, unpropitious; ill-fated, ill-starred, star-crossed, troubled, unfortunate, unlucky; evil, malign, malignant

Near Antonyms

auspicious, benign, bright, encouraging, favorable, golden, heartening, hopeful, promising, propitious, prosperous

Rhymes with DIRE

briar, choir, fire, gyre, hire, ire, mire, prior, sire, spire, squire, tier, tire, wire