awe-inspiring

comparative more awe-inspiring · superlative most awe-inspiring

1. Inspiring awe; awesome.

   The Taj Mahal is an awe-inspiring sight.

   3 more examples

   Across the far end of the cavern, with a grinding and crashing noise - a noise so dreadful and awe-inspiring that we all trembled, and Job actually sank to his knees - there flamed out an awful cloud or pillar of fire, like a rainbow many-coloured, and like the lightning bright.

   1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC

   There is nothing so terrifying or so awe-inspiring as the unknown. The more mysterious the phenomenon, the more feared on the one hand, or the more respected on the other. This truism survives even in these modern ultra-sophisticated days.

   1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 8

   All goods vehicles are fitted with the Westinghouse brake, with the exception of those on the isolated railway serving Nelson. However, as some compensation for this deficiency, the four 2-6-4 tanks on this section are fitted with steam smokebox-ash blowers, which are unique, useful, and awe-inspiring pieces of apparatus.

   1954 August, J. B. Snell, “The New Zealand Government Railways—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 562

   Synonyms: dreadful

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of awe-inspire