dreads

Pluraldreads

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of dread.

   Every student dreads the week of final exams.

   My grandmother dreads flying, so she takes the train whenever she can.

   Note

   Most often it is the verb of fearing, taking a noun or an -ing form as its object: she dreads the exam, he dreads flying. It is also the present tense of the hairdresser's verb, so a stylist who dreads a client's hair is twisting it into locks, not fearing it.

2. 2
   nouncolloquialplural

   Dreadlocks: hair worn in long, ropelike strands that are matted or twisted together.

   After six years, his dreads were thick enough to tie back with a bandanna.

   She washes her dreads with a soap that won't leave buildup.

   Similardreadlocks, locks, locs

   Note

   A clipped form of dreadlocks, and it keeps the full word's plural grammar: her dreads are long, never her dread is. It is the casual word; careful or formal writing usually prefers dreadlocks. The spelling also matches the verb of fearing, but context keeps the two apart.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A Rastafarian, a person who follows the Rastafari movement.

   The elder dreads of the neighborhood were treated with quiet respect.

   Several dreads spoke at the meeting about protecting the island's farmland.

   SimilarRastafarians, Rastas

   Note

   The hairstyle names its wearer: dreadlocks are so closely bound up with Rastafari that the clipped word for the hair came to stand for the person, a part standing for the whole. In the plural it names Rastafarians as a community, as in the elder dreads of a neighborhood.

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