dire

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈdaɪ̯ə(ɹ)/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• 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 (of)

   • 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.

   Synonyms: horrible, terrible, lamentable

   dire consequences;  to be in dire straits

   • 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.

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

   • 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.

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

• voir dire

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

• diure (Alghero)

• (Algherese) IPA^(key): /ˈdiɾa/

dire

1. (Northern, Alghero) Alternative form of dir

Inherited 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.

Disez is a nonstandard form for the second person plural in the present indicative.

• diction
• indicible

dire m (plural dires)

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

• aux dires de

• Louisiana Creole: di

• “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) dì, auxiliary avére) (transitive)

1. to utter (produce (speech or other sounds) with one's voice)
2. to recite
3. to say, tell, utter
   1. (transitive with di) to talk about, discuss
      • mid 13^th century, Gherardo Patecchio, Splanamento de li proverbi di Salomone [Explanation of Solomon's proverbs], line 21; collected in Roberto Tagliani, editor, compiled by Maria Luisa Meneghetti, Il manoscritto Saibante-Hamilton 390 - Edizione critica‎, Rome: Salerno Editrice, 2019, →ISBN, page 324:

        Dela lengua vòi’ dir alò primeramente (northern Italy)

        Then I want to talk about language firstly

4. to say (indicate in a written form)
5. used as a generic synonym for certain verbs:
   1. Synonym of soggiungere (“to add”)
   2. Synonym of continuare (“to continue”)
   3. Synonym of rispondere (“to reply”)
   4. Synonym of confessare (“to confess”)
   5. Synonym of dichiarare (“to claim”)
   6. Synonym of raccontare (“to tell, relate, report”)
      • mid 13^th century, Gherardo Patecchio, Splanamento de li proverbi di Salomone [Explanation of Solomon's proverbs], lines 13–14; collected in Roberto Tagliani, editor, compiled by Maria Luisa Meneghetti, Il manoscritto Saibante-Hamilton 390 - Edizione critica‎, Rome: Salerno Editrice, 2019, →ISBN, page 324:

        Li savi no ’m reprenda s’eu no dirai sì ben
        com’ se vorave dir […] (northern Italy)

        May the wise not reproach me, if I do not retell as well as one should retell […]

   7. Synonym of affermare (“to declare, assert”)
   8. Synonym of suggerire (“to suggest, clue”)
   9. Synonym of credere (“to believe, assume”)
6. to mean
7. to express a concept with the proper word in a given language
8. (uncommon) to speak
9. (rare) to announce the wedding of

   domani vi dirò in chiesa ― Tomorrow I'll announce your wedding in church

dire m (uncountable)

1. words

• Drei, Redi, idre, redi, ride

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈdiː.re/, [ˈd̪iːrɛ]
• (modern Italianate 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