Word of the Day: Dire/Dyer

dire

dire  /  dīr, dīər

 

adjective

 

1. 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

 

2. urgent, desperate

Nothing has more strength than dire necessity.

Euripides 480 – 406 B.C.

 

3. 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

 

1. 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