Associations to the word «Dire»

Wiktionary

DIRE, adjective. Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.
DIRE, adjective. Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing.
DIRE, adjective. Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.
DIRE, adjective. (informal) Bad in quality, awful, terrible.
DIRE STRAIGHTS, noun. Misspelling of dire straits.
DIRE STRAITS, noun. A difficult position
DIRE WOLF, noun. An extinct canine (Canis dirus) from the Pleistocene era

Dictionary definition

DIRE, adjective. Fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless; "a desperate illness"; "on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel"- G.C.Marshall; "a dire emergency".
DIRE, adjective. 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".

Wise words

Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.
William Butler Yeats