menace

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: menacé

English[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈmɛnɪs/
  • Rhymes: -ɛnɪs
  • Audio (UK)
    		(file)

Etymology 1[edit]

First attested ante 1300: borrowed from the Old French manace, menace, from the Vulgar Latin *minācia, from mināx, mināciae (“threatening; threats”), from minor (“I threaten”).

Noun[edit]

menace (plural menaces)

  1. A perceived threat or danger.
  2. The act of threatening.
  3. (informal) An annoying and bothersome person or thing.

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

First attested in 1303: from Old French menacer, manecier, manechier and Anglo-Norman manasser, from the assumed Vulgar Latin *mināciāre, from Latin minācia, whence the noun.

Verb[edit]

menace (third-person singular simple present menaces, present participle menacing, simple past and past participle menaced) (transitive, intransitive)

  1. (transitive) To make threats against (someone); to intimidate.
    to menace a country with war
  2. To threaten (an evil to be inflicted).
    • 1613, William Shakespeare; [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene ii]:
      By oath he menaced / Revenge upon the cardinal.
    • 1788 June, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, “Mr. Sheridan’s Speech, on Summing Up the Evidence on the Second, or Begum Charge against Warren Hastings, Esq., Delivered before the High Court of Parliament, June 1788”, in Select Speeches, Forensick and Parliamentary, with Prefatory Remarks by N[athaniel] Chapman, M.D., volume I, [Philadelphia, Pa.]: Published by Hopkins and Earle, no. 170, Market Street, published 1808, OCLC 230944105, page 474:
      The Begums' ministers, on the contrary, to extort from them the disclosure of the place which concealed the treasures, were, […] after being fettered and imprisoned, led out on to a scaffold, and this array of terrours proving unavailing, the meek tempered Middleton, as a dernier resort, menaced them with a confinement in the fortress of Chunargar. Thus, my lords, was a British garrison made the climax of cruelties!
  3. To endanger (someone or something); to imperil or jeopardize.

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  • “menace, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old French manace, from Vulgar Latin *minācia (“threat”), from Latin mināx (“threatening”), mināciae (“threats”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

menace f (plural menaces)

  1. threat

Related terms[edit]

Verb[edit]

menace

  1. first-person singular present indicative of menacer
  2. third-person singular present indicative of menacer
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of menacer
  4. third-person singular present subjunctive of menacer
  5. second-person singular imperative of menacer

Further reading[edit]

Friulian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Vulgar Latin *minācia, from the plural of Latin mināx (“threatening”); cf. mināciae (“threats”).

Noun[edit]

menace f (plural menacis)

  1. threat, menace
Related terms[edit]
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