ppl. a.1 Obs. or arch. Forms: 3 adræd, 3–6 adred, adrad(de, 5 adrade, adrede, 5–6 adredde, 6 adread; revived in 9 as adrad, (adread). [Probably weakened form of of-drad, pa. pple. of OF-DREDE to frighten, terrify. Of-drad and a-drad are used synonymously from 1200 to 1300, about which date the former disappears.] Frightened, greatly afraid, put in dread. Const. gen. or of; dat. inf.; subord. cl.; W. Morris has at.
c. 1200. Trin. Coll. Hom., 31. Þe engel quað to hem ne be ȝe naht ofdredde.
1205. Layamon, 7575. His men weoren of dredde [1250 a-dradde]. Ibid., 10952. Adræd he wes swiðe [1250 adred].
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XIX. 21. For alle derke deuelles · aren adradde to heren it.
c. 1384. Chaucer, Hous of F., 928. Loke thou ne be Adrad of hem.
a. 1420. Occleve, De Reg. Princ., 1275. I am adredde God is not in this place.
c. 1440. Generydes, 3867. He was full sore adrede of his comyng.
c. 1440. Morte Arthur (1819), 47. The quene of dethe was sore A drade.
1549. Chaloner, trans. Erasm. Moriæ Enc., R iv b. He nothyng helde hymself adradde of drunken Marke Anthony.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia (1622), 126. Thinking to make all men adread.
1600. Tourneur, Metamorph., liv. 377 (1878), 208. The beast gan looke as one that were adrad.
1855. Singleton, Virgil, I. 390. Her sister heard it breathless, and adread.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 147. Thereat adrad He turned him round. Ibid., I. I. 19. I was the less adrad Of what might come.
† Adrad ppl. a.2, dreaded. See ADREAD v.1
