How to Use dreadful in a Sentence

dreadful

1 of 2 adjective

• Those children have such dreadful manners.
• Her performance was absolutely dreadful.
• And that sounds like a dreadful way to live, friend.
  — Kristen Arnett, Literary Hub, 7 May 2026
• Plus, a three-week road trip sounds dreadful.
  — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 26 Aug. 2025
• 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
• But Rangers pitchers have been dreadful at that aspect of the game.
  — Dallas News, 16 Aug. 2022
• Wearing a suit in summer doesn’t have to be a dreadful affair.
  — Bernd Fischer, Men's Health, 20 July 2022
• Once again this winter, Lopez is feeling a dreadful sense of déjà vu.
  — Los Angeles Times, 16 Jan. 2023
• As just discussed, the AL is dreadful.
  — Chandler Rome, New York Times, 25 May 2026
• Text wraps around you like a dreadful whisper, with an eye to suffocate.
  — Brittany Allen, Literary Hub, 18 May 2026
• That’s why the dreadful wait has given him a new perspective.
  — Shane Young, Forbes, 27 May 2022
• 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
• Friday was pretty darn dreadful for the Chiefs.
  — Pete Grathoff, Kansas City Star, 16 Aug. 2025
• Unpacking wet and muddy gear at the end is always the most dreadful part of the whole trip.
  — Olivia Young, Travel + Leisure, 9 Apr. 2026
• And Quinn, for the rare time, is not dreadful annoyance to us as readers.
  — Borys Kit, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Dec. 2023
• Li’s life has been marked by dreadful tragedy, the loss of both her sons to suicide, which would destroy many mothers.
  — Salman Rushdie, Time, 15 Apr. 2026
• 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
• Yet the Kings have had dreadful starts in each of the three dates on this seven-game homestand.
  — Andrew Knoll, Daily News, 3 Apr. 2026
• So what did workers consider to be the least dreadful buzzwords.
  — Paul O'Donnell, Dallas News, 12 Sep. 2023
• The hosts are 4-for-8 in the second half after a dreadful first half of shooting.
  — Michael Casagrande | [email protected], al, 15 Feb. 2023
• Nobody tried to hide that or burn away the message that humanity has a dark and dreadful side.
  — Beth Thames | [email protected], al, 9 Feb. 2022
• The normal route is a dreadful grind of lower-level contests in mediocre waves.
  — William Finnegan, The New Yorker, 23 May 2022
• It's been a dreadful year for bankers who specialize in IPOs.
  — Alex Frangos, WSJ, 19 Sep. 2022
• This war has gone on for more than a month now, and the terrifying and dreadful and sickening dances all around us.
  — Margo Gontar, CNN, 2 Apr. 2022
• Wells’ surprise diagnosis came with him in the midst of a dreadful season.
  — Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 8 June 2026
• To get past this dreadful moment, more and more Americans are going to have to face a painful fact.
  — David French, Mercury News, 17 Sep. 2025
• Granted, your in-laws may be dreadful grandparents, but there are usually four of them.
  — Jeanne Phillips, Mercury News, 17 July 2026
• The sound quality of the tinny four-speaker stereo is pretty dreadful though.
  — Mike Duff, Car and Driver, 26 May 2023
• The Cincinnati Bengals were downright dreadful at this time two years ago.
  — oregonlive, 7 Feb. 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

dreadful

2 of 2 noun

• The comical bumps up against the chaotic, the domestic beats back the dreadful.
  — Ed Stockly, Los Angeles Times, 24 Aug. 2022
• The Rangers just completed their fourth consecutive losing season and packed a whole lot of dreadful into just 60 games.
  — Evan Grant, Dallas News, 30 Sep. 2020
• Like many people who live in the suburbs, there’s no burning desire to get back on a bus or train and waste two to three hours going back and forth in a dreadful, soul-sucking commute to the city every day.
  — Jack Kelly, Forbes, 13 Apr. 2022
• But the Blazers minus Anfernee Simons in the lineup are next-level dreadful.
  — oregonlive, 7 Mar. 2022
• For many people who live in the suburbs, there’s no burning desire to get back on a bus or train and waste two to three hours going back and forth in a dreadful, soul-sucking commute to the city each and every day.
  — Jack Kelly, Forbes, 22 May 2021
• Penny dreadfuls, as McMurtry and Fowler note, were developed to cater to a specific youth audience.
  — Encyclopedia Britannica, 8 June 2026
• Only blue shells in Mario Kart games produce more pained utterances of swear words amongst users of interactive software than that dreadful, infuriating wiggle mode.
  — Samuel Axon, Ars Technica, 28 Sep. 2020