Word family noun fright frighteners adjective frightened frightening frightful verb frighten adverb frighteningly frightfully
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishfrightfulfright‧ful /ˈfraɪtfəl/ adjective old-fashioned especially British English 1 BADunpleasant or bad SYN awful, terrible There’s been a frightful accident.2 VERYused to emphasize how bad something is SYN awful, terrible Her hair was a frightful mess.Examples from the Corpus
frightful• Oh, Little Kai, it was frightful, and horrid.• Blanche thought she was frightful but listened to her breathless monologues with stoic patience.• This is a frightful cautionary tale, well told.• They gazed in bovine surprise at the scarlet-faced visitor, and for one frightful moment Breeze felt that she must flee.• Later, during a frightful storm, a princess knocked at the castle door, begging for shelter.• Everyone was terrified of him on account of his frightful temper.• It was so frightful that my daughter Lilya and I stopped travelling by car together. 