awe
Noun · VerbOpen English WordNet
Noun (2)
- an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration“he stared over the edge with a feeling of awe”Type of wonder, wonderment
- 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”Synonyms: fearreverencevenerationType of emotion
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: OE. aȝe, aghe, fr. Icel. agi; akin to AS. ege, ōga, Goth. agis, Dan. ave chastisement, fear, Gr. ἄχος pain, distress, from the same root as E. ail. √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.— William 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.— John Keble
To tame the pride of that power which held the Continent in awe.— Thomas Babington 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.— Charles John Smith
To stand in awe of, to fear greatly; to reverence profoundly.
Synonyms: See Reverence.
To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread.
That same eye whose bend doth awe the world.— William Shakespeare
His solemn and pathetic exhortation awed and melted the bystanders.— Thomas Babington Macaulay
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
<multimedia, music, hardware> (AWE) The kind of synthesis used by the EMU 8000 music synthesizer integrated circuit found on the SB AWE32 card.
(1996-12-15)