adjective

awful

Translation

awful, terrible, very bad

The weather was awful yesterday.

I feel awful about forgetting her birthday.

That's an awful lot of money.

((to be)) awful to be very bad The movie was awful.

((to feel)) awful to feel very ill or unhappy I feel awful today.

((an awful lot of sth.)) a very large amount of (sth.) He has an awful lot of work to do.

Synonyms: terrible, dreadful, horrible; Antonyms: wonderful, excellent, awesome

From 'awe' + '-ful'. Originally meant 'inspiring awe', but the meaning shifted to 'inspiring terror', and then to 'very bad'.

Note the complete shift in meaning from its root 'awe'. 'Awful' is now almost always negative.