Dictionary

diresome en · ADJ

Etymology

From dire + -some.

Meanings

1. Characterised or marked by direness; dire.
   • An event: It is the first day of 'Id al-Fitr, the Islamic festival of fast-breaking, and all the children are out playing in the streets, and so are all the traditional vampires, who make a living out of sucking the blood of their parents' faces on this most holy occasion, in these most appalling and diresome times. 2013, Ammar Abdulhamid, Menstruation:
   • The Secretary may enclose the most pleading note with that transcript or may make the most diresome and awful threats, but your average participant serenely pursues his way and leaves the Secretary to his troubles and gladly makes him a present of his own into the bargain and all the Secretary can do is to grin and bear it and be blamed and criticised afterwards because such participant's remarks did not appear. 1913, Bernhard Conrad Hesse, Eighth International Congress of Applied Chemistry:

Forms