What is the meaning of awful?

adjective

• Exceptionally bad or displeasing.
  • usage: "atrocious taste"; "abominable workmanship"; "an awful voice"; "dreadful manners"; "a painful performance"; "terrible handwriting"; "an unspeakable odor came sweeping into the room"
  • synonyms: atrocious, abominable, dreadful, painful, terrible, unspeakable
• 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: dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, fearful, fearsome, frightening, horrendous, horrific, terrible
• Offensive or even (of persons) malicious."in a nasty mood"; "a nasty accident"; "a nasty shock"; "a nasty smell"; "a nasty trick to pull"; "Will he say nasty things at my funeral- Ezra Pound
  • synonyms: nasty
• Inspired by a feeling of fearful wonderment or reverence.
  • usage: "awed by the silence"; "awful worshippers with bowed heads"
  • synonyms: awed
• Extreme in degree or extent or amount or impact.
  • usage: "in a frightful hurry"; "spent a frightful amount of money"
  • synonyms: frightful, terrible, tremendous
• Inspiring awe or admiration or wonder.
  • usage: "New York is an amazing city"; "the Grand Canyon is an awe-inspiring sight"; "the awesome complexity of the universe"; "this sea, whose gently awful stirrings seem to speak of some hidden soul beneath- Melville; "Westminster Hall's awing majesty, so vast, so high, so silent"
  • synonyms: amazing, awe-inspiring, awesome, awing

adverb

• Used as intensifiers.
  • usage: "terribly interesting"; "I'm awful sorry"
  • synonyms: terribly, awfully, frightfully