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Dire Straits and Furies
Dire and fury share a history in Roman mythology, as each of these words is connected to the Erinyes, the avenging and terrifying deities of ancient myth who tormented criminals. The Romans referred to these goddesses as either the Dirae or the Furiae. The former is from the Latin word dirus, from which dire is descended, and the latter comes from furere, from where we get fury. The word dire is often found in conjunction with straits; in dire straits is used of a situation that is very bad or difficult. Our records indicate that this phrase began to be used in English at the end of the 18th century, when it appeared in Francis Fawkes’s The Argonautics of Apollonius Rhodius: “When now the heroes through the vast profound, Reach the dire straits with rocks encompass’d round.”
Examples of dire in a Sentence
Christopher Ketcham, Harper's, June 2008
Whether one is a lowly farmer or an urban worker, a student, professional, or a member of the elite, a meal is not complete unless rice is served to accompany the main viand of pork, fish, chicken, beef, vegetables or in the most dire circumstances, dry fish or salt.
—Georgina R. Encanto, Food, April 2000
All wild tigers are threatened with extinction, but Sumatran tigers are in especially dire straits because the world's zoos have only 235 of them in captive-breeding programs.
—Audubon, November-December 1998
The circumstances are now more dire than ever.
Some analysts are issuing dire economic forecasts.
They live in dire poverty.
Jonathan Lambert, NPR, 18 Aug. 2025
Invasive methods are acceptable when the alternatives are more dire, but to gain mainstream adoption BCI technology will have to deliver low latency and high resolution with non-invasive sensors.
—Amir Husain, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2025
As a result of skyrocketing tuition costs and a depressing white-collar job market, Gen Z’s situation is so dire that 4.3 million young people are now NEETs: not in education, employment, or training.
—Jessica Coacci, Fortune, 15 Aug. 2025
Other Ukrainian sources in the area paint a more dire picture, in which months of persistent Russian pressure has culminated in a weak spot to exploit.
—Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 14 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for dire
Cite this Entry
“Dire.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dire. Accessed 22 Aug. 2025.
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dire
adjective
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