God-awful, a. slang (orig. U.S.).
(ˌgɒdˈɔːfʊl)
Also God awful, Godawful.
[f. god n. + awful a.]
Terrible; extremely unpleasant. (In quot. 1878 the sense is ‘impressively large’.)
| 1878 J. H. Beadle Western Wilds xxxvii. 611 Put thirty acres..into wheat, and went to work with a hurrah in 1874 to make a God-awful crop. 1897 C. M. Flandrau Harvard Episodes 88 Ellis is such a God awful fool. 1930 W. S. Maugham Breadwinner ii. 124 Your affairs are in a god-awful mess. 1946 ‘S. Russell’ To Bed with Grand Music i. 14 Listen to the most godawful programmes on the radio. 1958 R. Graves in Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Aug. p. x/4 The credible and vivid story that any context (red-brick, yellow-brick, or otherwise God-awful) offers. 1959 P. McCutchan Storm South iv. 63, I heard the most God-awful racket above my head. |