Definition of dread

• fearful expectation or anticipation; "the student looked around the examination room with apprehension"
• be afraid or scared of; be frightened of; "I fear the winters in Moscow"; "We should not fear the Communists!"
• causing fear or dread or terror; "the awful war"; "an awful risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling"; "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse"