THREATENING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Threatening

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/θrˈɛtənɪŋ/ /θrˈɛtnɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Threaten v. t. (past & past part. threatened; pres. part. threatening)

To utter threats against; to menace; to inspire with apprehension; to alarm, or attempt to alarm, as with the promise of something evil or disagreeable; to warn. "Let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name."

To exhibit the appearance of (something evil or unpleasant) as approaching; to indicate as impending; to announce the conditional infliction of; as, to threaten war; to threaten death. "The skies look grimly And threaten present blusters."

Synonyms: To menace. Threaten, Menace. Threaten is Anglo-Saxon, and menace is Latin. As often happens, the former is the more familiar term; the latter is more employed in formal style. We are threatened with a drought; the country is menaced with war. "By turns put on the suppliant and the lord: Threatened this moment, and the next implored." "Of the sharp ax Regardless, that o'er his devoted head Hangs menacing."

Threaten v. i. To use threats, or menaces; also, to have a threatening appearance. "Though the seas threaten, they are merciful."

adjective

Threatening adj. A. & n. from Threaten, v.

Threatening letters (Law), letters containing threats, especially those designed to extort money, or to obtain other property, by menaces; blackmailing letters.

See images of 'Threatening'

Etymology of 'Threatening'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Threatening" Quotes from Famous Books

... God has inspired you, and has made use of the hand of a child for our preservation. Your conductor shall remain where you have so happily placed it; we may still have need of it. The sky still looks very threatening; let us return to your mother, and take ...

— The Swiss Family Robinson; or Adventures in a Desert Island • Johann David Wyss

... looked as like his ancestors as anything outside of a painted picture could do. His flushed face, his flashing eyes, his passionate exclamations, the stamp of his foot, the blow of his hand, the threatening attitude of his whole figure was but a replica of his great-grandfather, Anthony Rawdon, giving Radicals at the hustings or careless keepers at the kennels "a bit ...

— The Man Between • Amelia E. Barr

... think. Why should Mr. Raven expect—or, if not expect, be afraid of, any attack on himself? But before I could make any comment on my companion's information, my attention to the subject was diverted. All that afternoon the weather had been threatening to break—there was thunder about. And now, with startling suddenness, a flash of lightning was followed by a sharp crack, and that on the instant by a heavy downpour of rain. I glanced at Miss Raven's light dress—early ...

— Ravensdene Court • J. S. (Joseph Smith) Fletcher

... Duke of Perth and Sir John Gordon had a little plan of their own. They thought that a march into Wales would be a good middle course to adopt, but their suggestion found no backers. All Charles's other counsellors were to a man in favor of retreat, and Charles, after at first threatening to regard as traitors all who urged such a course, at last gave way. Sullenly he issued the disastrous order to retreat, sullenly he rode in the rear of that retreat, assuming the bearing of a man who is no longer responsible for failure. The cheery good-humor, the bright ...

— A History of the Four Georges, Volume II (of 4) • Justin McCarthy

... described, is a form of indigestion in which the chief symptom and most threatening condition is the collection of gas in the paunch. This symptom does not always accompany indigestion, so it is well here to consider other forms under a separate head. If indigestion is long continued, the irritant abnormal products developed cause catarrh of the stomach and intestines—gastrointestinal ...

— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

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