Adjacent Words

Awe definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

AWE, n. aw. [Gr. to be astonished.]
1. Fear mingled with admiration or reverence; reverential fear.
Stand in awe and sin not. Psalms 4.
2. Fear; dread inspired by something great, or terrific.
AWE, v.t. To strike with fear and reverence; to influence by fear, terror or respect; as, his majesty awed them into silence.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration; "he stared over the edge with a feeling of awe"
2: a feeling of profound respect for someone or something; "the fear of God"; "the Chinese reverence for the dead"; "the French treat food with gentle reverence"; "his respect for the law bordered on veneration" [syn: fear, reverence, awe, veneration] v
1: inspire awe in; "The famous professor awed the undergraduates"

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Middle English, from Old Norse agi; akin to Old English ege awe, Greek achos pain Date: 13th century 1. an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime <stood in awe of the king> <regard nature's wonders with awe> 2. archaic a. dread, terror b. the power to inspire dread II. transitive verb (awed; awing) Date: 13th century to inspire with awe <we were awed by the beauty of the mountains>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. reverential fear or wonder (stand in awe of). --v.tr. inspire with awe. Phrases and idioms: awe-inspiring causing awe or wonder; amazing, magnificent. Etymology: ME age f. ON agi f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Awe Awe, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Awed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Awing.] To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread. That same eye whose bend doth awe the world. --Shak. His solemn and pathetic exhortation awed and melted the bystanders. --Macaulay.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Awe Awe ([add]), n. [OE. a[yogh]e, aghe, fr. Icel. agi; akin to AS. ege, [=o]ga, Goth. agis, Dan. ave chastisement, fear, Gr. 'a`chos pain, distress, from the same root as E. ail. [root]3. Cf. Ugly.] 1. Dread; great fear mingled with respect. [Obs. or Obsolescent] His frown was full of terror, and his voice Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe. --Cowper. 2. The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence. There is an awe in mortals' joy, A deep mysterious fear. --Keble. To tame the pride of that power which held the Continent in awe. --Macaulay. The solitude of the desert, or the loftiness of the mountain, may fill the mind with awe -- the sense of our own littleness in some greater presence or power. --C. J. Smith. To stand in awe of, to fear greatly; to reverence profoundly. Syn: See Reverence.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(awes, awed) 1. Awe is the feeling of respect and amazement that you have when you are faced with something wonderful and often rather frightening. She gazed in awe at the great stones... 2. If you are awed by someone or something, they make you feel respectful and amazed, though often rather frightened. I am still awed by David's courage... The crowd listened in awed silence. VERB: usu passive, no cont, be V-ed, V-ed 3. If you are in awe of someone or if you stand in awe of them, you have a lot of respect for them and are slightly afraid of them. PHRASE: V inflects

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

o: Fear mingled with reverence and wonder, a state of mind inspired by something terrible or sublime.

In the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) it occurs in Ps 4:4: "Stand in awe, and sin not" (where the Revised Version, margin has, "Be ye angry," so Septuagint; compare Eph 4:26); Ps 33:8; 119:161. In the following passages the Revised Version (British and American) substitutes "stand in awe" for the King James Version "fear": Ps 22:23 phoboumenoi;

Isa 29:23; 1Sa 18:15; Mal 2:5; and in Heb 12:28 it substitutes "awe" for the King James Version "reverence" (deos here only in New Testament). In all these passages, except 1Sa 18:15 (eulabeito, where it describes Saul's feeling toward David), the word stands for man's attitude of reverential fear toward God. This is the characteristic attitude of the pious soul toward God in the Scriptures, especially in the Old Testament. It arises from a consciousness of the infinite power, sublimity and holiness of God, which fills the mind with the "fear of the Lord," and a dread of violating His law. See FEAR.

D. Miall Edwards

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Reverence, veneration, reverential fear. 2. Dread, fearfulness, terror, fear. 3. Solemn exaltation, admiring solemnity, adoring wonder. II. v. a. 1. Inspire with awe, solemnize, make reverent, fill with revering dread. 2. Overawe, intimidate, frighten, affright, daunt, cow. See affright.

Moby Thesaurus

abject fear, admiration, adoration, affright, alarm, amaze, amazement, apotheosis, appall, appreciation, approbation, approval, astonish, astonishment, astound, astoundment, awestrike, be widely reputed, bedaze, bedazzle, beguilement, bewilder, bewilderment, blue funk, boggle, bowl down, bowl over, breathless adoration, breathless wonder, command respect, confound, consideration, consternation, courtesy, cowardice, daunt, daze, dazzle, deference, deification, deter, discourage, dishearten, dismay, dread, dumbfound, dumbfounder, dumbfoundment, duty, esteem, estimation, exaggerated respect, fascination, favor, faze, fear, flabbergast, freeze, fright, funk, great respect, have prestige, hero worship, high regard, homage, honor, horrification, horrify, horror, idolatry, idolization, inspire respect, marvel, marveling, overawe, overwhelm, panic, panic fear, paralyze, perplex, petrify, phobia, prestige, puzzlement, rank high, regard, respect, reverence, reverential regard, scare, scare stiff, scare to death, sense of mystery, sense of wonder, shake, shock, spook, stagger, stampede, stand high, startle, stop, strike dead, strike dumb, strike terror into, strike with wonder, stun, stupefaction, stupefy, surprise, terrify, terror, terrorize, unholy dread, veneration, wonder, wonderment, worship