How to Use dread in a Sentence

dread

1 of 2 verb
  • I dread the thought of moving next week.
  • I dread to think about what they might do next.
  • He can't swim and dreads going in the water.
  • I dread the day I will have to leave my friends.
  • She dreaded making speeches in front of large audiences.
  • Many people dread the 14th day of the second month of the year.
    Tyler Renner, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Feb. 2024
  • Other teams used to dread trying to run against the Aztecs.
    Bryce Miller, San Diego Union-Tribune, 10 Nov. 2023
  • While some love to play host, others dread the day and the work that comes with it.
    Sari Hitchins, Parents, 17 Nov. 2023
  • The banks have plenty to dread from the reporting rule.
    The Editorial Board, WSJ, 7 Oct. 2021
  • Many parents of these kids come to dread feeding time and sleep time.
    Bernhard Warner, Fortune, 6 July 2021
  • Even the dogs that dread bath time the most can't complain about this adorable and colorful look.
    Annie O’Sullivan, Good Housekeeping, 13 May 2022
  • Not so long ago, women were taught to dread going gray.
    Hannah Coates, Vogue, 8 July 2021
  • Yet even those who dread remote teaching may accept the need for more of it.
    Jessica Winter, The New Yorker, 20 Jan. 2022
  • And then, come Sunday, you’re left dreading the work week ahead.
    Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 30 Mar. 2023
  • Faubion said people need not dread their middle and post-menopausal years.
    Claire Bugos, Verywell Health, 17 Mar. 2023
  • But since losing the hearing in her left ear in 2005, she's come to dread being in airports.
    Kevyn Burger Special To The Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 4 May 2021
  • Still, the documentary is so vivid as to instill dread at the thought of all the gatherings to come.
    Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 27 July 2021
  • Some dread the return of business travel or the end of remote work.
    New York Times, 8 June 2021
  • What came next were three words dreaded by pitchers around the world: Tommy John surgery.
    Akeem Glaspie, The Indianapolis Star, 11 Apr. 2023
  • What supply chain manager doesn’t dread getting the news that the goods are not going to show up at the dock on time?
    Allbusiness, Forbes, 29 June 2021
  • The pain is so severe that the 67-year-old, born Paul Hudson, spends most of his days curled up in bed, dreading the arrival of the next wave.
    Kyle Eustice, Rolling Stone, 16 July 2023
  • Aside from the fateful signs of hair thinning, many people also dread gray hair.
    Grooming Playbook, The Salt Lake Tribune, 19 Dec. 2022
  • She was left with the last resort that so many families dread: calling the police.
    Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2022
  • Many people dread the blaring sound of an alarm clock, signaling the start of a busy workday.
    Alexa Mikhail, CNN, 14 June 2022
  • That’s why McCarthy and other coaches dread the hours leading up to the deadline.
    David Moore, Dallas News, 30 Aug. 2021
  • Though most kids might dread having a teacher for a neighbor, Mr. Feeny, played by William Daniels, was the exception to the rule.
    Andrea Wurzburger, Peoplemag, 10 Aug. 2022
  • Yet, lurking in the background are both hope and dread that fundamental change may not be far away.
    Ian Bremmer, Time, 23 June 2023
  • Many CEOs are afraid of their board members and dread the mandatory meetings.
    Michael Hoffman, Forbes, 11 Aug. 2022
  • The 31-year-old dreads the thought of the payments, which have been on pause since the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, resuming.
    Chris Quintana, USA TODAY, 10 May 2023
  • Dass looked forward to the visits but dreaded seeing her child grow up without her.
    Shoshana Walter, New York Times, 29 June 2023
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dread

2 of 2 noun
  • The news about the war fills me with dread.
  • She has a dread of failure.
  • He }lives with the constant dread of rejection.
  • They live in constant dread of another attack.
  • She awaited her punishment with dread.
  • From the first minute, The Whale is suffused with dread.
    David Sims, The Atlantic, 10 Dec. 2022
  • And yet, the Danes don’t face the same sort of dread on a Sunday night.
    Samantha Laine Perfas, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Feb. 2024
  • The thought of going through that again at age 53 filled her with dread.
    Aidan Gardiner, New York Times, 18 July 2023
  • And given what we've been told, we're filled with the same dread as Beau.
    Evan Romano, Men's Health, 22 Apr. 2023
  • And if the idea of going to a bike shop still fills you with dread, then don’t go to a bike shop.
    Christie Fitzpatrick, Outside Online, 17 Feb. 2023
  • And hopefully that adds to the dread of, 'Is this going to be the big death of this movie?
    Patrick Gomez, EW.com, 20 Mar. 2023
  • The dancers themselves, of course, also will convey the dread of the story.
    Matthew J. Palm, Orlando Sentinel, 13 Oct. 2022
  • What never goes away, though, is the dread about the cancer that future probes will find.
    Sharon Lerner, ProPublica, 15 Dec. 2022
  • But my eyes brushed over her and then stuck, just a few moments after the mid-shift dread rose up in me.
    Hazlitt, 19 Apr. 2023
  • That's probably bringing a bit of dread on right then and there.
    Evan Romano, Men's Health, 30 Aug. 2022
  • The call filled Egyptians with dread: Whom would the police stop, who would disappear, who would pay the price?
    Taylor Luck, The Christian Science Monitor, 17 Nov. 2022
  • Yet there doesn’t seem to be the same sense of pervasive dread that there was in the seventies and eighties.
    Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, 12 Nov. 2023
  • The only thing predictable about Fuse is how strong the songs are, facing up to adult angst and modern dread.
    Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 17 Apr. 2023
  • Many of us know the dread of a phone battery on 1 percent and the panic of watching its screen flicker out.
    Kelsey Ables, Washington Post, 11 Apr. 2023
  • Police described the suspect as a Black man around 6 feet tall and 190 pounds, with long black dreads, the statement said.
    Kate Armanini, BostonGlobe.com, 28 Mar. 2023
  • For some of us, a feeling of dread this time of year is nearly as inevitable as overeating.
    Steven P. Dinkin, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Nov. 2022
  • Leg day filled me with dread until one of my trainers told me that the key was embracing the challenge of it.
    Jesse Hicks, Men's Health, 14 Dec. 2022
  • All-Stars, who have built a career on reinterpreting rock for the dread set.
    Patricia Meschino, Rolling Stone, 19 Jan. 2023
  • Residents like Lamar Mabry live with the dread of what the pollution may be doing to them.
    Shane Loeffler, ProPublica, 1 Sep. 2022
  • If scheduling plans with them fills you with a sense of dread rather than excitement, take that as a sign.
    Leah Campano, Seventeen, 31 Mar. 2023
  • The film builds a hypnotic momentum, along with a quiet sense of dread that sneaks up on you.
    David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Sep. 2023
  • In 1989, Gerald Howard had been a book editor for about ten years, and his future filled him with dread.
    Kevin Lozano, The New Yorker, 1 Nov. 2023
  • When Maureen went missing in 2007, her sister was filled with dread.
    Erin Moriarty, CBS News, 14 July 2023
  • Even the most veteran players have begun to feel a sense of dread in the pit of their stomachs when a lead begins to slip away.
    Julia Poe, Chicago Tribune, 3 Mar. 2023
  • The sketchy windblown figures of mother and daughter stare in wonder, or dread, from the bottom edge.
    Roberta Smith, New York Times, 27 July 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dread.' 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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