What is the meaning of dread?

noun

• Fearful expectation or anticipation.
  • usage: "the student looked around the examination room with apprehension"
  • synonyms: apprehension, apprehensiveness

verb

• Be afraid or scared of; be frightened of.
  • usage: "I fear the winters in Moscow"; "We should not fear the Communists"
  • synonyms: fear

adjective

• Causing fear or dread or terror.
  • usage: "the awful war"; "an awful risk"; "dire news"; "a career or vengeance so direful that London was shocked"; "the dread presence of the headmaster"; "polio is no longer the dreaded disease it once was"; "a dreadful storm"; "a fearful howling"; "horrendous explosions shook the city"; "a terrible curse"
  • synonyms: awful, dire, direful, dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terrible