"dreaded" in the verb sense
1. fear, dread
be afraid or scared of be frightened of
"I fear the winters in Moscow"
"We should not fear the Communists!"
"dreaded" in the adjective sense
1. awful, dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terrible
causing fear or dread or terror
"the awful war"
"an awful risk"
"dire news"
"a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"
"the dread presence of the headmaster"
"polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"
"a dreadful storm"
"a fearful howling"
"horrendous explosions shook the city"
"a terrible curse"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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