Word of the Day: Dire/Dyer
dire
dire / dīr, dīər
adjective
- disastrous, terrible, dreadful
A thousand fearful images and dire suggestions glance along the mind when it is moody and discontented with itself.
Walter Scott, 1771 – 1832
- urgent, desperate
Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.
Euripides 480 – 406 B.C.
- indicative of great trouble or disaster
This system must be demystified, politicized, and recognized for the ways in which it has come to pose a dire threat to democracy.
Henry Giroux, 1943 –
dyer
dy-er / dīr, dīər
noun
- one who dyes cloth or other materials as an occupation
He was a dyer, who in the course of dipping homespun wool and old women’s petticoats had got fired with the ambition to learn a great deal more about the strange secrets of colour.
From “Adam Bede” by George Eliot, 1819 – 1880