dire

Borrowed from Latin dīrus (“fearful, ominous”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈdaɪ̯ə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

dire (comparative direr or more dire, superlative direst or most dire)

1. Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous.

   dire omens

2. Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing.

   dire need

   • 2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891:

     One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. […] But out of sight is out of mind. And that, together with the inherent yuckiness of the subject, means that many old sewers have been neglected and are in dire need of repair.

3. Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal.

   dire consequences;  to be in dire straits

   Synonyms: horrible, terrible, lamentable

   • 2019 August 30, Jonathan Watts, “Amazon fires show world heading for point of no return, says UN”, in The Guardian‎:

     Cristiana Paşca Palmer, the executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, said the destruction of the world’s biggest rainforest was a grim reminder that a fresh approach needed to stabilise the climate and prevent ecosystems from declining to a point of no return, with dire consequences for humanity.

4. (informal) Bad in quality, awful, terrible.
   • 2011 December 10, Arindam Rej, “Norwich 4-2 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport:

     A second Norwich goal in four minutes arrived after some dire Newcastle defending. Gosling gave the ball away with a sloppy back-pass, allowing Crofts to curl in a cross that the unmarked Morison powered in with a firm, 12-yard header.

   His dire mistake allowed her to checkmate him with her next move.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:dire.

• voir dire

• Deri, Dier, IDer, Reid, dier, drie, ired, ride

• diure (Algherese)

• (Algherese) IPA^(key): /ˈdiɾa/

dire

1. (Northern Catalan, Alghero) Alternative form of dir

From Middle French dire, from Old French dire, from Latin dīcō, from Proto-Italic *deikō, from Proto-Indo-European *déyḱti (“to show, point out”).

• IPA^(key): /diʁ/

• audio

  (file)

• (Quebec) IPA^(key): /d͡ziʁ/
• Rhymes: -iʁ

dire

1. to say, to tell
2. (informal) to be of interest to, to interest [+ à (someone)]

   Ça te dit de regarder un film de science-fiction? ― Do you want to watch a science fiction movie? What do you say to watching a science fiction movie?

   Ça vous dit ? ― Are you interested [in doing this]? Are you up [for it]?

   Il m'a demandé si ça nous dirait de nous joindre à eux plus tard. ― He asked me if we'd like to join them later.

   Ça ne me dit trop rien d'y aller. ― I don't really want to go [there].

3. (informal) to sound familiar [+ à (someone)]

   Ça me dit quelque chose. ― It rings a bell.

   Ça ne me dit rien. ― It doesn't ring a bell.

• diction
• indicible

dire m (plural dires)

1. saying (that which is said)
2. belief, opinion

• aux dires de

• “dire”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• ride, ridé

• dicere (archaic)

From a contraction of Latin dīcere, from Proto-Italic *deikō, from Proto-Indo-European *déyḱti (“to show, point out”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈdi.re/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ire
• Hyphenation: dì‧re

dìre (first-person singular present dìco, first-person singular past historic dìssi, past participle détto, first-person singular imperfect dicévo, second-person singular imperative dì' or (with syntactic gemination after the verb, with written accent on monosyllabic verb) dì, auxiliary avére) (transitive)

1. to say, tell
2. to recite
3. to mean
4. to think
5. to admit

• Drei, Redi, idre, redi, ride

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈdiː.re/, [ˈd̪iːrɛ]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈdi.re/, [ˈd̪iːre]

dīre

1. vocative masculine singular of dīrus

• “dire”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898) Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

From Old French dire, from a contraction of Latin dīcere, present active infinitive of dīcō.

dire

1. to say (express using language)

• French: dire

• díder, díser

From Old Occitan dir, dire, from a contraction of Latin dīcere, present active infinitive of dīcō.

• IPA^(key): /ˈdi.ɾe/

• Audio (Languedocien)

  (file)

dire

1. to say (express using language)
2. to mean; to signify

From a contraction of Latin dīcere, present active infinitive of dīcō.

dire

1. (chiefly intransitive) to say
2. (transitive) to recount (a story)

This verb conjugates as a third-group verb. This verb has irregularities in its conjugation. Old French conjugation varies significantly by date and by region. The following conjugation should be treated as a guide.

• Middle French: dire
  • French: dire
• Norman: dithe
• Walloon: dire

• “Appendix E: Irregular Verbs” in E. Einhorn (1974), Old French: A Concise Handbook, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 153

• dir

From a contraction of Latin dīcere, present active infinitive of dīcō.

dire

1. to say

• Occitan: dire

From Old French dire, from a contraction of Latin dīcō, dīcere.

• IPA^(key): /diːʀ/

dire

1. to say