dire vs promising

dire

adj
  • Warning of bad consequences: ill-boding; portentous. 

  • Expressing bad consequences: dreadful; dismal. 

  • Bad in quality, awful, terrible. 

  • Requiring action to prevent bad consequences: urgent, pressing. 

promising

adj
  • Showing promise, and likely to develop in a desirable fashion. 

  • a promising young apprentice 

  • Encouraging and inspiring confidence. 

noun
  • The act of making a promise. 

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