01 n. Dread; great fear mingled with respect.
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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.
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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.
Phrases & compounds
To stand in awe of —
to fear greatly; to reverence profoundly.
Syn.
See Reverence.