fearsome

Infinitive complement

• behold: They are described as being fearsome to behold sharp, yellowing teeth.

Modifies a noun

• reputation: Despite the fearsome reputations of lions, they rarely kill humans.
• dragon: The British poster offers a scene of St George wielding a sword against a fearsome dragon, without the shedding of any blood.
• warrior: Then the cup was handed over by a fearsome warrior.
• foe: Some terrible fearsome foe he turned out to be, eh?
• beast: He then called on the fearsome beast to appear.
• predator: The walls of our casita were adorned with jaguar masks; these big cats, native to the rainforest, are fearsome predators.

Modifying Another Word

• pretty: A horned Moses completes the picture at the other end, also looking pretty fearsome.
• so: The fells are not so fearsome but are just as dramatic.
• truly: If this was Kasparov exhausted, Kasparov energized would be a truly fearsome prospect.
• rather: I've arrived at the rather fearsome looking crags at the southwestern edge of Narnain's summit dome.
• fairly: They can also be used to deposit coatings and do fairly fearsome things to surfaces.
• very: They may make up a very small but very fearsome element of the waterbird community at our universities.

Used with adjective complement

• look: At first glance two pieces of wood strung together by a length of cord, may not look too fearsome a weapon.
• become: The tree diagram for this situation is beginning to become rather fearsome.
• seem: And using it regularly makes it seem much less fearsome than it was the first time I tried to use it.