direr; direst
1
a
: exciting horror
dire suffering
b
: dismal, oppressive
dire days
2
: warning of disaster
a dire forecast
3
a
: desperately urgent
in dire need of assistance
b
: extreme
dire poverty
direly adverb
direness noun

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Dire Straits and Furies

Dire and fury share a history in Roman mythology, as each of these words is connected to the Erinyes, the avenging and terrifying deities of ancient myth who tormented criminals. The Romans referred to these goddesses as either the Dirae or the Furiae. The former is from the Latin word dirus, from which dire is descended, and the latter comes from furere, from where we get fury. The word dire is often found in conjunction with straits; in dire straits is used of a situation that is very bad or difficult. Our records indicate that this phrase began to be used in English at the end of the 18th century, when it appeared in Francis Fawkes’s The Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius: “When now the heroes through the vast profound, Reach the dire straits with rocks encompass’d round.”

Examples of dire in a Sentence

The alleged threat posed by Yellowstone's 3,600 buffalo came from the fact that they carry brucella, a bacterium that cycles harmlessly enough in Bison bison but has considerably more dire effects on cattle. Christopher Ketcham, Harper's, June 2008
Whether one is a lowly farmer or an urban worker, a student, professional, or a member of the elite, a meal is not complete unless rice is served to accompany the main viand of pork, fish, chicken, beef, vegetables or in the most dire circumstances, dry fish or salt. Georgina R. Encanto, Food, April 2000
All wild tigers are threatened with extinction, but Sumatran tigers are in especially dire straits because the world's zoos have only 235 of them in captive-breeding programs. Audubon, November-December 1998
The circumstances are now more dire than ever. Some analysts are issuing dire economic forecasts. They live in dire poverty.
Recent Examples on the Web The dire shortages and retreat of authorities have led to desperate scrambles around aid convoys and scenes of chaos that Gazans were unaccustomed to. Hazem Balousha, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024 More:Doomsday Clock 2024 time update has dire warnings of nuclear war, climate change and AI USA TODAY reporter Kinsey Crowley contributed to this report. Claire Reid, Journal Sentinel, 14 Mar. 2024 And although the ship continues to need repairs, city officials said its condition might not be as dire as was once believed. Salvador Hernandez, Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2024 Bonds away One window into how dire things have become is in the market for its debt. Melvin Backman, Quartz, 13 Mar. 2024 The administration has repeatedly sent national security officials to Capitol Hill to privately make the case for the legislation and offer dire warnings on the risks of TikTok’s current ownership. Annie Karni, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024 In the face of such dire predicaments, Monterey County supervisors in late February asked those distributing the aid to be as flexible as possible with documentation. Luis Melecio-Zambrano, The Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2024 The situation was so dire last year at one Walgreens store in San Francisco, employees resorted to padlocking frozen foods. Veronica Miracle, CNN, 7 Mar. 2024 But the situation in Ukraine has appeared to grow more dire in recent weeks. Kaia Hubbard, CBS News, 7 Mar. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dire.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin dīrus "(of omens) exciting horror, awful, (of physical or nonphysical things) inspiring terror, dreadful," probably going back to *dweiro-, going back to Indo-European *du̯ei̯-ro- or *du̯ei̯-so-, adjectival derivatives of the verbal base *du̯ei- "fear" — more at deinonychus

Note: The regular outcome of pre-Latin *dweiros would be *bīrus in Latin, which has led to speculation that the word has been borrowed from another Italic language. This hypothesis appears to be supported by a remark in the expanded version of the commentary on the Aeneid by the grammarian Servius, that the word dīrus was used by the Sabines and Umbrians.

First Known Use

1565, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of dire was in 1565

Dictionary Entries Near dire

Cite this Entry

“Dire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dire. Accessed 29 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

dire

adjective
direr; direst
1
: causing horror : dreadful
dire suffering
2
: warning of disaster
a dire forecast
3
direly adverb
direness noun

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