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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.”
Synonyms
Examples of dire in a Sentence
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.
Alex Horton, Washington Post, 9 Apr. 2024
But the reality of the situation is a tad more dire.
—Mike Kaye, Charlotte Observer, 9 Apr. 2024
More than a million Palestinians are now sheltering in dire humanitarian conditions in the southern city of Rafah, where Israel is also planning an offensive.
—Zeena Saifi, CNN, 8 Apr. 2024
The consequences there are dire — Dad says some instances have resulted in honor killings by family members and suicide.
—Lorena O'Neil, Rolling Stone, 8 Apr. 2024
Since the outbreak of the Israeli-Gaza conflict, the United Nations agency representing Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has provided aid to Gazan civilians facing dire humanitarian conditions.
—Tom Soufi Burridge, ABC News, 5 Apr. 2024
Authorities in Virginia also recently encountered dogs in dire conditions.
—Kelli Bender, Peoplemag, 4 Apr. 2024
In dire situations like this, one option that’s often overlooked—or intentionally avoided—is bringing in help from a debt collection agency.
—Dean Kaplan, Forbes, 29 Mar. 2024
As a result, students across the state must learn amid dire conditions.
—Becca Savransky, Idaho Statesman, 27 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
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.
1565, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Phrases Containing dire
Dictionary Entries Near dire
Cite this Entry
“Dire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dire. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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dire
adjective
More from Merriam-Webster on dire
Nglish: Translation of dire for Spanish Speakers
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