orful
English
Adjective
orful
- Eye dialect spelling of awful.
- 1891, Various, Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100, March 28, 1891[1]:
- I ain't bin werry well lately, and, to crown the hole, I was cort in the Lizzard, I think, as they called it, on that awful Munday nite, and that was pretty nearly a settler for both my old bones and my breth, and might ha' bin quite so, if one of the werry kindest Members of the old Copperashun as I nos on, who had bin a dining with a jolly party on 'em, hadn't kindly directed my notise to about a harf bottle-full of werry fine old Port, with the remarkabel kind words, "That's just about what you wants, Mr. ROBERT, to take you ome safely this most orful nite!"
- 1919, Jack O'Brien, Into the Jaws of Death[2]:
- "Gorblimey, it's bleedin' orful," said they.
- 1922, Harry Kemp, Tramping on Life[3]:
- "That's a bally orful way to get even with a henemy!" exclaimed a stoker, who sat on the edge of the forward hatch.
Adverb
orful
- Eye dialect spelling of awful.
- 1892, Various, Golden Days for Boys and Girls[4]:
- "It's orful silly of you to stick to that notion!
- 1898, Hezekiah Butterworth, In The Boyhood of Lincoln[5]:
- "He felt orful bad at not bein' invited, and made some poetry about 'em.
- 1917, Pauline Lester, Marjorie Dean[6]:
- "You are a orful naughty girl," he pouted reproachfully.