Crossword clues for baleful
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Baleful \Bale"ful\ (b[=a]l"f[.u]l), a. [AS. bealoful. See Bale misery.]
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Full of deadly or pernicious influence; destructive. ``Baleful enemies.''
--Shak.Four infernal rivers that disgorge Into the burning lake their baleful streams.
--Milton. Full of grief or sorrow; woeful; sad. [Archaic]
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Old English bealu-full "dire, wicked, cruel," with -ful + bealu "harm, injury, ruin, evil, mischief, wickedness, a noxious thing," from Proto-Germanic *balwom (cognates: Old Saxon balu, Old Frisian balu "evil," Old High German balo "destruction," Old Norse bol, Gothic balwjan "to torment"), from PIE root *bhelu- "to harm." During Anglo-Saxon times, the noun was in poetic use only (in compounds such as bealubenn "mortal wound," bealuðonc "evil thought"), and for long baleful has belonged exclusively to poets. Related: Balefully.
Wiktionary
a. 1 portend evil; ominous. 2 Miserable, wretched, distressed, suffering.
WordNet
adj. deadly or sinister; "the Florida eagles have a fierce baleful look" [syn: baneful]
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: forbidding, menacing, minacious, minatory, ominous, sinister, threatening, ugly]
Usage examples of "baleful".
He smiled a baleful, lingering smile, and then turned slowly and walked away.
And, as we have already seen, the Rebels of the South were not slow in following the baleful advice to the letter.
But the mass of the People, at that time still freshly remembered the terrible commercial disasters and industrial depressions which had befallen the Land, through the practical operation of that baleful Democratic Free-Trade doctrine, before the Rebellion broke out, and sharply contrasted the misery and poverty and despair of those dark days of ruin and desolation, with the comfort and prosperity and hopefulness which had since come to them through the Republican Protective-Tariff Accordingly, the Republican Presidential candidate, representing the great principle of Protection to American Industries, was elected over the Democratic Free-Trade candidate, by 214 to 71 electoral votes-or nearly three to one!
Snavely checked himself abruptly, for the light in the small, green eyes of Thomas Cadge was baleful, and his square jaw protruded menacingly.
But sliding down the ropes like baleful comets, the two Canallers rushed into the uproar, and sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle.
When we had reached a point some ten feet from the secret doorway I halted my companion, and cautioning him to remain absolutely motionless until I gave the prearranged signal I quickly turned my back to the door through which I could almost feel the burning and baleful eyes of our would be executioner.
The baleful eloquence of Thomas Muenzer was exerted at Muehlhausen to nerve the people to strike down the godless with pitiless sword.
Dor had sent news of a baleful henatrice, and the cock-lizard had hurried off at a swift crawl to find her.
A baleful sun rose early this morning over the municipally maintained woodland behind the Kursaal and must have shone down unheeding for quite a space on the ghastly blue contorted lips of a respected local resident.
Nay, Aristotle would not have missed the quadrature of the circle, if only baleful conflicts had spared the books of the ancients, who knew all the methods of nature.
As I think, none saw me go, for, forgetful of their promised vengeance, the priests and priestesses were gathered trembling about the corpse of Rames in the inmost court of the Temple of Truth, though it is true that I felt the baleful eyes of Amenartas watching me.
A baleful almost-music, that of the tuneless cadences of an untutored orchestra repercussing in an ecstatic agony of echoes against the sounding boards of the mountains, lured us into the village square where we discover them twanging, plucking and abusing with horsehair bows a wide variety of crude stringed instruments.
The Vulg rolled on the ice, and his claws scratched and clicked as he scrambled to his feet, and his baleful yellow eyes flashed evil.
Faceless, eyeless, unseeing and unhearing, mouthless and yet provided with the most ghastly of mouths, the baleful algae came again.
Considering the time of year it was and the expectable atmospheric conditions, the day was mysteriously, even miraculously, bright and clear: atmospheric photochemical intensity way down, fog ditto, and patches of blue skyalmost blue, anywayshowing through behind the inescapable striped layerings of vividly colored greenhouse goop and the usual baleful white backdrop.