threatening
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]- threatning (obsolete)
Pronunciation
[edit]Etymology 1
[edit]From Middle English thretenyng, þreteninde, equivalent to threaten + -ing.
Verb
[edit]threatening
- present participle and gerund of threaten
Adjective
[edit]threatening (comparative more threatening, superlative most threatening)
- Presenting a threat, posing a likely risk of harm.
- Never turn your back to someone who is displaying threatening behavior.
- c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 229, column 1:
- Fie, fie, vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brovv, / And dart not ſcornefull glances from thoſe eies, / To vvound thy Lord, thy King, thy Gouernour.
- Making threats, making statements about a willingness to cause harm.
Synonyms
[edit]- minacious, menacing, threatensome (dialectal), threatful (rare)
Hypernyms
[edit]Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]presenting a threat
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Etymology 2
[edit]From Middle English thretenyng, thretnynge, þretnynge, equivalent to threaten + -ing.
Noun
[edit]threatening (countable and uncountable, plural threatenings)
- An act of threatening; a threat.
- 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts iiij:[29], folio clix, recto:
- And nowe lorde beholde their threatenyngꝭ / and graunte vnto thy ſervauntꝭ wyth all confydence to ſpeake thy worde.
- 1864 January 30, [authorship claimed by Edmund Yates], “Pincher Astray”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All The Year Round. A Weekly Journal., volume X, number 249, London: Chapman and Hall, page 539, column 2:
- The butcher’s boy—a fierce and beefy youth, who openly defied the dog, and waved him off with hurlings of his basket and threatenings of his feet, accompanied by growls of “Git out, yer beast!”—now entered silently;
Categories:
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *trewd-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms suffixed with -ing (participial)
- English non-lemma forms
- English verb forms
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English terms with quotations
- English terms suffixed with -ing (gerund noun)
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns