Things have been looking pretty dire lately at Federal Express, the company that invented overnight delivery.

For those wanting foreign fare, fast food joints abound in the larger towns, but tend to be pretty dire.

Although the new services have brought in more revenue, Robert Holbrook, one of the owners, said things still looked pretty dire.

You had to, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, create some possible outcomes that were pretty dire.

With one or two notable exceptions, I found the chippies north of the border to be pretty dire.

I know the state of TV is pretty dire, but come on.

It's true the view from the dugout is pretty dire.

Whatever we do and however much we try to put these matters in order, the events themselves show that the situation is pretty dire.

On reference to the economists just take a good look at there record on forecasting, pretty dire I would say.

At noon, things looked pretty dire, but at the end of the day, they didn't look so bad.