3 definitions found

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

formidable

adjective

1: extremely impressive in strength or excellence; "a formidable opponent"; "the challenge was formidable"; "had a formidable array of compositions to his credit"; "the formidable army of brains at the Prime Minister's disposal"

2: inspiring fear; "the formidable prospect of major surgery"; "a tougher and more redoubtable adversary than the heel-clicking, jackbooted fanatic"- G.H.Johnston; "something unnerving and prisonlike about high gray wall" [syn: {redoubtable}, {unnerving}]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:

Formidable \For"mi*da*ble\, adjective [L. formidabilis, fr. formidare to fear, dread: cf. F. formidable.] Exciting fear or apprehension; impressing dread; adapted to excite fear and deter from approach, encounter, or undertaking; alarming.

They seemed to fear the formodable sight. --Dryden.

I swell my preface into a volume, and make it formidable, when you see so many pages behind. --Drydn.

Syn: Dreadful; fearful; terrible; frightful; shocking; horrible; terrific; tremendous.

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

126 Moby Thesaurus words for "formidable": Herculean, abstruse, alarming, appalling, arduous, astonishing, astounding, awe-inspiring, awesome, awful, brutal, burdensome, challenging, complex, conspicuous, critical, daunting, delicate, demanding, difficile, difficult, dire, direful, dread, dreaded, dreadful, earnest, effortful, egregious, exacting, exceptional, extraordinary, fabulous, fantastic, fatal, fateful, fell, freaky, frightening, frightful, ghastly, ghoulish, grave, grim, grisly, gruesome, hairy, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought, heavy, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrid, horrific, horrifying, imposing, impressive, incredible, indomitable, intimidating, intricate, jawbreaking, knotted, knotty, labored, laborious, macabre, marked, marvelous, mean, menacing, mighty, mind-blowing, mind-boggling, morbid, no picnic, not easy, notable, noteworthy, noticeable, of mark, onerous, operose, outstanding, overwhelming, petrifying, portentous, powerful, prodigious, redoubtable, remarkable, rigorous, rough, rude, rugged, schrecklich, serious, set with thorns, severe, shocking, signal, sober, solemn, spiny, staggering, steep, strenuous, striking, superior, terrible, terrific, terrifying, thorny, ticklish, toilsome, tough, tremendous, tricky, unbelievable, uncommon, uphill, weighty, wicked, wonderful

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