different between fearful vs sickening

English

Alternative forms

• fearefull (obsolete)
• fearfull (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English ferful, fervol, equivalent to fear +? -ful.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??f?l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?f??f?l/
• Rhymes: -???f?l
• Hyphenation: fear?ful

Adjective

fearful (comparative fearfuller or fearfuler or more fearful, superlative fearfullest or fearfulest or most fearful)

1. Frightening.
2. Tending to fear; timid.

   a fearful boy

3. (dated) Terrible; shockingly bad.
4. (now rare) Frightened; filled with terror.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.4:

     Those two great champions did attonce pursew / The fearefull damzell with incessant payns […]

Synonyms

• (frightened): frightened, timid, timorous
• See also Thesaurus:afraid and Thesaurus:cowardly

Translations

Adverb

fearful (comparative more fearful, superlative most fearful)

1. (dialect) Extremely; fearfully.

Further reading

• fearful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• fearful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Lauffer

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?s?k(?)n??/
• Hyphenation: sick?en?ing

Verb

sickening

1. present participle of sicken

Adjective

sickening (comparative more sickening, superlative most sickening)

1. Causing sickness or disgust.
2. (LGBT slang) Amazing, fantastic.
   • 2014, The Infamous Todd Kachinski Kottmeier, Drag King Guide: So You Want to Be a Male Impersonator, Lulu.com, ?ISBN, p. 188:

     Richard Cranium does sickening stuff (if your budget permits), stones from Charles Brennan and lots of imagination.

   • 2016, Juackie Huba and Shelly Stewart Kronbergs, Fiercely You: Be Fabulous and Confident by Thinking Like a Drag Queen, Berret-Koehler, ?ISBN, no page number:

     Latrice lives every day by her mantra, “It’s OK to make mistakes. It’s OK to fall down. Get up, look sickening, and make them eat it!” Translation: rise above your downfalls in life, and always look amazing while dismissing the haters.

   • 2017, Mayka Castellando and Heitor Leal Machado, “‘Please come to Brazil!’ The practices of RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Brazilian fandom”, in RuPaul’s Drag Race and the Shifting Visibility of Drag Culture, ed. by Niall Brennan and David Gudelunas, Springer, ?ISBN, p. 172:

     Back with the seventh season next March 2nd, RuPaul’s Drag Race promises to gather fans and followers in front of the computer to watch the new competition to crown the most sickening queen.

Translations

See also

• loathsome
• disgusting
• abominable
• detestable
• hateful

Noun

sickening (plural sickenings)

1. The act of making somebody sick.
   • 2010, Greg A. Marley, Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares

     In the Northeast, one porcini look-alike has been implicated in several sickenings. It is Boletus huronensis, and though some guides call it edible, there have been a few cases of people becoming sickened following a meal of this mushroom.