I can think of a host of similar examples.

It's not "my own" interpretation. It's what the words mean; people have simply stretched that meaning to include "never gonna happen" when they don't want to come right out and admit the latter. As I said in response to Tim, language is about communication, so maybe I should respect that, but it's certainly going too far to say the was the phrase has been misapplied should SUPPLANT the literal meaning.

Definitions don't supply connotation; that's not their job. On the other hand, connotation is not denotation either. One of my favorite phrases from Jefferson is a line about how the Founding Fathers created a country where human happiness can increase indefinitely, if not infinitely; if we restrict indefinitely to the meaning you argue here that phrase is just so much gobbledygook.

I seldom use "awful" for precisely the reason you state, though it has been known to happen; usually when I do use it it's off a situation that could reasonably inspire awe. I rarely use "terrible" at all, but that's just because I rarely use it. Obviously the meanings of words change over time, but it shouldn't be arbitrary or random, and it really isn't; NAMBLA may start a campaign to make "pedophile" mean "fine upstanding citizen" but it won't make much progress. So, yes, due to the way so many people use it (as evidenced by the responses in this subthread and elsewhere) I see how the way you took it is reasonable--but that's not the ONLY way to take it; the way I meant it is at least as legitimate.