dire

Adjective

• causing fear or dread or terror
  • 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
    

• fraught with extreme danger; nearly hopeless
  • a desperate illness
    
  • on all fronts the Allies were in a desperate situation due to lack of materiel- G.C.Marshall
    
  • a dire emergency