awe Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun an overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration
    • he stared over the edge with a feeling of awe
  2. noun a feeling of profound respect for someone or something
    fear; veneration; reverence.
    • the fear of God
    • the Chinese reverence for the dead
    • the French treat food with gentle reverence
    • his respect for the law bordered on veneration
  3. verb inspire awe in
    • The famous professor awed the undergraduates

WordNet

Awe noun
Etymology
OE. ae, aghe, fr. Icel. agi; akin to AS. ege, ga, Goth. agis, Dan. ave chastisement, fear, Gr. pain, distress, from the same root as E. ail. 3. Cf. Ugly.
Definitions
  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.
    Syn. -- See Reverence.
Awe transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Awed (); present participle & verbal noun Awing
Definitions
  1. 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.

Webster 1913