god-awful

adjective

Extremely awful, unpleasant or dreadful.

“Your roast beef was the most god-awful piece of meat I ever ate.”

Meanings

god-awful1

adjectivegod-awful (comparative more god-awful, superlative most god-awful)

comparative more god-awful · superlative most god-awful · alternative God-awful · alternative god awful · alternative godawful · alternative goshawful · alternative gawdawful

  1. USderogatoryslangExtremely awful, unpleasant or dreadful.

    Your roast beef was the most god-awful piece of meat I ever ate.

    2 more examples

    LA is the loneliest and most brutal of American cities; New York gets god-awful cold in the winter but there’s a feeling of wacky comradeship somewhere in some streets. LA is a jungle.

    1957 September 5, Jack Kerouac, chapter 13, in On the Road, London: Penguin Books, published 1976, →ISBN, part 1, page 86

    It's a god-awful small affair To the girl with the mousy hair

    1971, “Life on Mars?”, performed by David Bowie

God-awful2

adjectiveGod-awful (comparative more God-awful, superlative most God-awful)

comparative more God-awful · superlative most God-awful

  1. alternativeAlternative form of god-awful.

Synonyms & antonyms

adjective(informal) very unpleasant

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Cite this entry
APA

god-awful. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/god-awful

MLA

“god-awful.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/god-awful. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “god-awful,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/god-awful.

Source: god-awful on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.