(superl.) Evil in great degree; dreadful; dismal; horrible; terrible; lamentable.
Example Sentences:
(1) Why is it so surprising to people that a boy like Chol, just out of conflict, has thought through the needs of his country in such a detailed way?” While Beah’s zeal is laudable, the situation in South Sudan is dire .
(2) It is that beautiful moment when the original Metamorphosis is destroyed so that it can be refashioned for a global community of readers in dire need of new forms of storytelling.
(3) In this investigation, reanalysis of responses to case vignettes obtained from 436 psychologists, psychiatrists, and internists revealed that on the issue of confidentiality management, these health care providers discriminate among cases involving: Premeditated harm to others, socially irresponsible acts with possible dire consequences to self or others, and minor theft.
(4) The report’s concluding chapters raised dire warning that the operations of contemporary child protection agencies were replicating many of the destructive dynamics of the Stolen Generations era.
(5) Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, warned Barack Obama in public remarks this month that history had shown “sacrificing our right to privacy can have dire consequences”.
(6) Algeria had not scored a World Cup goal since they drew 1-1 with Northern Ireland at Mexico 1986, a run that took in five matches, including that dire 0-0 draw with England in Cape Town four years ago.
(7) Professor Lord Stern of the London School of Economics, the author of the influential Stern Report into the economics of climate change for the Treasury in 2006, warned that if the pattern continued, the results would be dire.
(8) High among the range of issues was the media dominance of the Globo group (whose journalists were chased away from demonstrations by an irate mob), inefficient use of public funds, forced relocations linked to Olympic real estate developments, the treatment of indigenous groups, dire inequality and excessive use of force by police in favela communities.
(9) Burrows had resigned as governor of Bank of Ireland, leaving the lender in dire straits, with big losses and mounting debt threatening its very survival.
(10) Yet the inability to get on in life is a now a major and growing problem for middle-class children and this group is in dire need of attention, it is expected to report.
(11) Vince Cable, their shadow chancellor, said: "The Liberal Democrats welcome the government's recognition that radical action is now needed, reflecting the dire and deteriorating position of the UK economy.
(12) Its willingness to ignore diplomatic convention and use its Kuala Lumpur embassy to conduct an extraterritorial assassination will be seen as setting a dire precedent that cannot be allowed to stand.
(13) What is clear, however, is that the reported escalation in fighting exacerbates the already dire humanitarian and human rights situation and the suffering of the Yemeni people,” said Ban’s spokesman, Farhan Haq.
(14) In a scene of young soldiers at rest for a few minutes at the front, he takes us into their heads: one full of dire forebodings, another singing, one trying to identify a bird on a tree – soldiers dreaming of girls’ breasts, dogs, sausages and poetry.
(15) Despite its own dire predictions on the potential impact of climate change , the government's impact assessment for Flood Re does not take account of " changing flood risk due to deterioration of existing flood defences [or] climate change".
(16) The situation is so dire the National Audit Office has warned that by 2020 schools will be worse funded than at any time since the mid-90s.
(17) John Macgregor, an aid worker who has been accompanying teams delivering food and water to Battambang, described the area as a vast inland sea where conditions are dire and malnutrition is common.
(18) But they are also the stuff of nightmares, because if an electricity grid is overwhelmed by demand, the consequences can be dire, as India discovered recently , when more than 700 million people were left without power.
(19) Thousands of jobs that would have been created will be lost and the knock-on effect will be so dire.
(20) While big businesses have enjoyed access to new couriers, Royal Mail itself eventually reached such a dire state that the Hooper report urged the government to rewrite the law to clarify that competition was a mixed blessing.
Parlous
Definition:
(a.) Attended with peril; dangerous; as, a parlous cough.
(a.) Venturesome; bold; mischievous; keen.
Example Sentences:
(1) But the remarks by Gross, whose pronouncements on bond markets are regarded as highly influential, added to the sense that the economy remained in a dangerously parlous state.
(2) Pentagon assurances about the parlous state of its Syrian proxies are in doubt: within a week, it initially denied and then conceded that one group provided US equipment to al-Qaida in Syria and that it has paused the process of adding new recruits.
(3) Every piece of business research that has ever been done shows that when a company puts a women on their board the company does better yet women make up 17% of the boards of FTSE 100 companies and that is a parlous state.” The broadcaster said she was inspired by more feminine values that had particularly influenced one Icelandic company, run by two women , which survived Iceland’s economic collapse a few years ago.
(4) It speaks volumes about the current parlous state of the US economy that America's central bank on Wednesday announced fresh measures to boost growth .
(5) ITV Encore, a pay-TV channel launching in the summer and exclusive to Sky subscribers for an undisclosed period , and free-to-air ITVBe – launching in late 2014 and the new home of The Only Way is Essex – will be the broadcaster's first new channels since CiTV in 2006, at least partly because of the previously parlous state of its finances.
(6) George Papandreou Unveils Radical Reforms to Salvage Greece’s Public Finances: 14 December 2009 Greece will use its worst debt crisis in decades to rebuild itself, Papandreou pledges as he unveils reforms to set right the parlous state of the nation’s public finances .
(7) Byrne justifies the freeze on the grounds of low inflation and the parlous state of public finances.
(8) Newspapers are in a parlous state at the moment ... we need a more grown up debate than this."
(9) At the back of investors' minds is the knowledge that such action has only been precipitated by the parlous state of the global economy; a steadily worsening situation, in Europe, the US and elsewhere, has provoked central banks to act.
(10) The Department for International Development believes such projects undermine the already parlous image of the Afghan government.
(11) Angrily punching the air as politicians debated the country's parlous economic plight, protesters shouted: "We give a vote of no confidence."
(12) Initially the bank asked Ireland's central bank for €7bn to prop up its parlous finances following the Irish property crash.
(13) Given the parlous state of the newspaper industry, the fight for advertising and the near endless prospect of austerity, that’s pretty amazing.
(14) We're pleased the commission recognised this, but need to consider whether the recommendations will go far enough to address the parlous state of competition in the UK."
(15) The special report warned that the parlous state of the French economy, its rising unemployment, lack of competitiveness, dwindling industry and high public spending, could overshadow the problems of Greece or Spain, and sparked angry reactions from French ministers.
(16) (The guy seemed to pass: “Basically an imperial stout, Vietnamese coffee edition – comes in at 12.7%, strongest can we’ve ever done, in fact the strongest can in the world right now.” Then, with a flourish of which Watt himself might have been proud: “So, I guess, the king of the cans.”) At about the time Camra was getting under way in the UK, beer on the other side of the Atlantic was in an equally parlous state.
(17) But he has done the opposite, allowing short-term tactical victories against terrorist networks to overwhelm America's wider strategic priorities and leave its relations with key governments in a parlous state.
(18) Neil Blake , Head of UK and EMEA research at the CBRE , said: Much of the downgrading of GDP estimates for 2012 and the on-going weakness of UK economic forecasts reflect the parlous state of private sector construction.
(19) I accept that given the parlous economic situation, the government has tough decisions to make.
(20) But his release is loaded with symbolism about the parlous state of Egypt and fading hopes for peaceful political change across the wider region – graphically underlined by the latest carnage in Syria .