awful

Modifying Another Word

• truly: I guess some of your life must have felt truly awful at times.
• pretty: I braced myself; something pretty awful was about to happen.
• hilariously: When he's not doing hilariously awful James Cagney impressions he's being a mad scientist or coming up with the worst of ideas.
• frankly: Hated the beginning, hated the ELO songs, hated the frankly awful oral sex joke at the end.
• absolutely: Read all top rated reviews... Absolutely awful drivel.
• damn: Her situation is not helped by the fact that the script is so damn awful, but she can't act anyway.

Infinitive complement

• contemplate: The impact of another major incident is almost too awful to contemplate.
• watch: It really was awful to watch and brought proceedings to a grinding halt.

Modifies a noun

• lot: I get an awful lot of requests to add links to the main site.
• mess: Someone with hidden Pick's is going to make an awful mess of things sooner or later.
• pun: It's an appropriate title - awful pun notwithstanding - given the band's propensity for the darker side of pop.
• truth: An awful truth I have found buried in the official records, disguised by brutal facts.
• smell: I will keep up the pressure on Southern Water to have them explain their failure to deal with this awful smell more promptly.
• tragedy: This brief act of honor and duty, homage and triumph, is closely followed by an awful tragedy.

Used with adjective complement

• f**king: You may, no offense, be f**king awful.
• smell: One of the things smells just awful, like a dead thing.
• feel: I guess some of your life must have felt truly awful at times.
• look: By the same mark, the ultra reliable LED digital clocks can look absolutely awful in their plastic boxes.
• taste: There were bottles of evil smelling, thick brown sludge, which tasted awful.
• sound: Although I've probably made it sound awful it actually isn't.