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Adjective: fearful  feer-ful
  1. Lacking courage; ignobly timid and faint-hearted
    "fearful dogs, ye will not aid me then";
    - cowardly
     
  2. Experiencing or showing fear
    "a fearful glance"; "fearful of criticism"
     
  3. Causing fear, dread or terror
    "a fearful howling";
    - awful, dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terrible
     
  4. Extremely distressing
    "fearful slum conditions";
    - frightful
     
  5. Timid by nature or revealing timidity
    "cast fearful glances at the large dog";
    - timorous, trepid

See also: afraid, alarming, bad, caitiff [archaic], chicken [informal], chickenhearted, chicken-livered, cowardice, cowardliness, craven, dastard, dastardly, faint, fainthearted, faint-hearted, 'fraid [non-standard], funky [informal], ignoble, lily-livered, poltroon, poor-spirited, pusillanimous, recreant [archaic], timid, unmanly, white-livered, yellow, yellow-bellied [informal]

Antonym: courageous

Encyclopedia: Fearful