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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.”
Examples of dire in a Sentence
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.
Anthony Crupi, Sportico.com, 11 July 2025
Since many retirees depend on Social Security payments for the bulk of their everyday necessities, this could have dire consequences for seniors, pushing many to delay retirement or not be able to retire.
—Suzanne Blake, MSNBC Newsweek, 11 July 2025
Most important, the service had issued three increasingly dire warnings early that morning — at 1:14 a.m., 4:03 a.m. and 6:06 a.m.
—Zeynep Tufekci, Mercury News, 10 July 2025
Further, the changes are not supported by scientific evidence; in fact, the data is quite clear that pregnancy puts people at high risk of severe COVID-19, and vaccination protects against dire outcomes for pregnant people and newborns.
—ArsTechnica, 8 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for dire
Cite this Entry
“Dire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dire. Accessed 18 Jul. 2025.
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dire
adjective
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