awfully good
Unexpectedly quite impressive
Awfully good captures a peculiar English pattern where an intensifier meaning "terribly" or "dreadfully" amplifies something positive.
The awful in awfully has lost its negative force entirely, functioning like very or extremely: That pie was awfully good.
The combination sounds slightly old-fashioned or folksy, more common in casual speech than formal writing.
- pretty uglyOxymoronic unattractiveness descriptor
- oxymoronSelf-contradicting phrase device
- contradictionOpposing claims, incompatible together
- ironyMeaning opposite to words
- paradoxSeemingly absurd truth
brutally honest · slang · colloquial · understated · British humor · guilty pleasure · backhanded compliment · bittersweet · twisted
- oxymoronsbittersweet, deafening silence, pretty ugly, living dead, act naturally
- Nonsense & Oxymoronsparadox, contradiction, nonsense, gibberish, balderdash