The Collaborative International Dictionary
Sinister \Sin"is*ter\ (s[i^]n"[i^]s*t[~e]r; 277), a. Note: [Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, as Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden.] [L. sinister: cf. F. sinistre.]
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On the left hand, or the side of the left hand; left; -- opposed to dexter, or right. ``Here on his sinister cheek.''
--Shak.My mother's blood Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister Bounds in my father's
--Shak.Note: In heraldy the sinister side of an escutcheon is the side which would be on the left of the bearer of the shield, and opposite the right hand of the beholder.
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Unlucky; inauspicious; disastrous; injurious; evil; -- the left being usually regarded as the unlucky side; as, sinister influences.
All the several ills that visit earth, Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.
--B. Jonson. -
Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest; corrupt; as, sinister aims.
Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.
--Bacon.He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.
--South.He read in their looks . . . sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself.
--Sir W. Scott. -
Indicative of lurking evil or harm; boding covert danger; as, a sinister countenance.
Bar sinister. (Her.) See under Bar, n.
Sinister aspect (Astrol.), an appearance of two planets happening according to the succession of the signs, as Saturn in Aries, and Mars in the same degree of Gemini.
Sinister base, Sinister chief. See under Escutcheon.
Usage examples of "sinister aspect".
Mount Franklin was now hooded by a somber cloud of sinister aspect, and, amid the flames, vomiting forth incandescent rocks, some of which fell back into the crater itself.
Although the Hardy boys could hardly realize as yet the tremendous importance of the secret upon which they had stumbled, they knew that Vilnoff's possible presence at the cabin in the clearing now took on a more sinister aspect.
For there was a clearly visible living figure on that desolate island, and a second glance told him it was certainly the strange old woman whose sinister aspect had worked itself so disastrously into his dreams.
They had not been able to perceive the sinister aspect of this shore from the summit of Mount Franklin, for they overlooked it from too great a height, but viewed from the sea it presented a wild appearance which could not perhaps be equaled in any corner of the globe.
Each looked like a diamond, reflecting light off myriad facets, and as they spun, they took on a sinister aspect.
The noises, however, in Benson's den did not contribute to any extent to the sinister aspect of the place.
Low, flat, isolated, with its dark, eye-like windows, it presented a forbidding and sinister aspect.
Together, however, and coming upon the heels of his struggle, they acquired a more sinister aspect.
I was supposed to know nothing about the sinister aspect of magic.