Crossword clues for threatening
threatening
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Threaten \Threat"en\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Threatened; p. pr. & vb. n. Threatening.] [OE. [thorn]retenen. See Threat, v. t.]
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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.
--Acts iv. 17. -
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.
--Milton.The skies look grimly And threaten present blusters.
--Shak.Syn: To menace.
Usage: 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.
--Prior.Of the sharp ax Regardless, that o'er his devoted head Hangs menacing.
--Somerville.
Threatening \Threat"en*ing\, a. & n. from Threaten, v. -- Threat"en*ing*ly, adv.
Threatening letters (Law), letters containing threats, especially those designed to extort money, or to obtain other property, by menaces; blackmailing letters.
Wiktionary
Presenting a threat; menacing; frightening. n. An act of threatening; a threat. v
(present participle of threaten English)
WordNet
adj. threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments; "a baleful look"; "forbidding thunderclouds"; "his tone became menacing"; "ominous rumblings of discontent"; "sinister storm clouds"; "a sinister smile"; "his threatening behavior"; "ugly black clouds"; "the situation became ugly" [syn: baleful, forbidding, menacing, minacious, minatory, ominous, sinister, ugly]
darkened by clouds; "a heavy sky" [syn: heavy, lowering, sullen]
Usage examples of "threatening".
Usually, she enjoyed getting lost in a throng of art aficionados, eavesdropping on the various off-the-cuff critiques, but just then, the crowd loomed like a threatening swarm.
By the 29th he was across the Ailette and threatening to turn the whole German position south of the Somme at Chauny.
Grinning fiercely and showering each other with blistering insults, they battled around the confines of the cave, leaping over the fire pit and threatening to trample Alec underfoot until he wisely retreated to the narrow crevice at the back.
Neither is aware that I, in my capacity as an alumna and a chapter sponsor, had to stop Jean Hall from threatening everything dear to Kappa Theta Eta.
Brionne could, and Danny started toward the village gate to know whether the ambient was as threatening there as here.
She lifted her chin, raising strained aquamarine eyes to meet a gaze as stormy as the threatening glow inside a volcano about to erupt.
But there is a note here that Ben wonders if this would happen over time, threatening a crisis round of global warming, rather than asphyxiation in your living room.
Necronomicon, in those parts which Wilbur had sought so avidly, seemed to supply new and terrible clues to the nature, methods, and desires of the strange evil so vaguely threatening this planet.
A sort of wild, rangy presence, not physically threatening to a grown man perhaps, but he could understand how he was able to dominate his roommate Beano, and to attract a tasty wee girl like that Andrina, even though she was a few years older than him.
They treated us like wild beasts in a menagerie, and the officers and soldiers set the example while the women and children were not behindhand with abuse, and made threatening gestures.
Chloe had left him, and he related how, summoned home to England and compelled to settle a dispute threatening a lawsuit, he had regretfully to abstain from visiting the Wells for a season, not because of any fear of the attractions of play-- he had subdued the frailty of the desire to play--but because he deemed it due to his Chloe to bring her an untroubled face, and he wished first to be the better of the serious annoyances besetting him.
In these circumstances, Nina Jablonski and George Chaplin, of the California Academy of Sciences, have suggested that the real reason humans became bipedal was as a way to appear bigger and more threatening in contests with other animals, and in so doing avoid punishing conflicts and gain access to food.
In 1994, faced with hyperinflation and mounting threats to his regime, Saddam took the inexplicable step of threatening another invasion of Kuwait--and the best evidence we have, from Hussein Kamel, was that Saddam was not bluffing but genuinely intended to attack.
Looking back, the high turrets and gables of the Boteler wing stood out dark and threatening against the starlit sky.
They would then turn to Ottawa and demand subsidies to cover fiscal overruns, either bribing ininisters to ensure bailouts or threatening to embarrass the government by halting construction-or both.