dire

He was roused from a meditation on these dire imaginings, by the sudden appearance of two figures at a turn of the lane.

Then, all at once he realized that he himself was in dire peril.

Not even the watermelon revived him, and when a watermelon will not help a boy his extremity is dire.

I will not shock you by relating the extremes to which dire necessity had driven me.

The silence was unbroken except for a slight shuffling of feet, but the dire disappointment was depicted on every face.

Yet these two dire diseases are rare among the temperate French.

They had heard, however, that in times of dire need help would come upon the blowing of a whistle.

She said she had dire need of him, and she told him that the king had sworn that no harm should come to him.

It seemed to him that before the morning light would again flood the earth a dire calamity would befall them.

Many were the ferocious glances he cast upon the young sailor; and many and dire were his threats of vengeance.