dreadful vs gamey

dreadful

adj
  • Genuinely horrific, awful, or alarming; dangerous, risky. 

  • Unpleasant, awful, very bad (also used as an intensifier). 

noun
  • A shocking or sensational crime. 

  • A journal or broadsheet printing such reports. 

  • A shocker: a report of a crime written in a provokingly lurid style. 

adv
  • Dreadfully. 

gamey

adj
  • Risque, sordid or sexually suggestive. 

  • Plucky, spirited or gritty. 

  • Having the smell, taste and texture of game meat. 

  • Involving in-game actions or behaviour that break immersion or contradict common sense in favour of exploiting game mechanics. 

How often have the words dreadful and gamey occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )