Word: direful
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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First is the notion that "soil cannot be stretched," that each acre has a certain production capacity (Vogt calls it "biotic potential") which cannot be boosted without dire peril. This is the same fallacy that expresses itself in the old saying, "There are only so many slices in the cake." Some businessmen say this when they decide that their markets cannot be expanded and, therefore, should be divided among them in quotas set by their cartel. Some labor unions decide that there are only so many jobs to be divided, and therefore oppose labor-saving devices...
From his hiding place, Deputy Sammartino sent his party a dire forecast. "The fact that I am going underground is only the beginning. Tomorrow all of you will have to join...
...Dire Situation...
...congratulate you on an excellent psychological report on the really dire situation in which our [Berlin] occupation forces find themselves [TIME, July...
Notable among the allegorical figures was "Gloom," garbed in long black veil and sweeping Gay Nineties feathers, who delivered dire predictions ("Slump and boom, slump and boom, is the rhythm of your doom"). There was also "Black Market" in a Piccadilly zoot suit; he offered his wares "out o' patriotism so as ter keep the owld country goin'," Central character was "Fear" (entwined from head to toe by a prop serpent), who declaimed: "Of all lands, my favorite and pet is England, blitzed and starving and in debt...