Awe (&?;), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Awed (&?;);
p. pr. & vb. n.
Awing.]
To strike with fear and reverence; to inspire with awe; to control by inspiring dread.
That same eye whose bend doth awe the world.
Shak.
His solemn and pathetic exhortation awed and
melted the bystanders.
Macaulay.
Awe (&add;), n. [OE. a&yogh;e, aghe, fr. Icel. agi; akin to AS.
ege, ōga, Goth. agis, Dan. ave chastisement, fear, Gr.
'a`chos pain, distress, from the same root
as E. ail. √3. Cf. Ugly.]
1. Dread; great fear mingled with respect. [Obs. or Obsolescent]
His frown was
full of terror, and his voice
Shook the delinquent with such fits of awe.
Cowper.
2. The emotion inspired by something dreadful and sublime; an undefined sense of the
dreadful and the sublime; reverential fear, or solemn wonder; profound reverence.
There is an
awe in mortals' joy,
A deep
mysterious fear.
Keble.
To tame the pride of that
power which held the Continent in awe.
Macaulay.
The solitude
of the desert, or the loftiness of the mountain, may fill the mind
with awe -- the sense of
our own littleness in some greater presence or power.
C. J. Smith.
To stand in awe of, to fear greatly; to reverence profoundly.
Syn. -- See Reverence.
Hear it pronounced