menace
Americannoun
-
menaces
plural
-
something that threatens to cause evil, harm, injury, etc.; a threat.
Air pollution is a menace to health.
-
a person whose actions, attitudes, or ideas are considered dangerous or harmful.
When he gets behind the wheel of a car, he's a real menace.
-
an extremely annoying person.
verb (used with object)
-
menaces,
present (3rd person singular)
-
menaced,
past participle, past
-
menacing
present participle
-
to utter or direct a threat against; threaten.
-
to serve as a probable threat to; imperil.
overdevelopment that menaces our suburbs.
verb (used without object)
-
menaces,
present (3rd person singular)
-
menaced,
past participle, past
-
menacing
present participle
verb
noun
-
literary a threat or the act of threatening
-
something menacing; a source of danger
-
informal a nuisance
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
menacesimple
-
menacessimple
-
have menacedperfect
-
has menacedperfect
-
am menacingprogressive
-
are menacingprogressive
-
is menacingprogressive
-
have been menacingperfect progressive
-
has been menacingperfect progressive
Past
-
menacedsimple
-
had menacedperfect
-
was menacingprogressive
-
were menacingprogressive
-
had been menacingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of menace
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English manace, manance, from Middle French manace, menace, from Late Latin minācia “threat,” equivalent to mināc- (stem of mināx ) “jutting out, threatening” + -ia; verb from noun; see -ia
Explanation
If it's threatening you or otherwise posing some sort of danger, then it's a menace. Angry rabid dogs, smog clouds, and annoying little brothers are all probable menaces. The word menace works as both a noun and a verb, but it wasn't used to describe threatening or bothersome people until 1936. Before then, common menaces probably included things like the plague, locusts, and roving bands of pirate ships. Today, a bad reputation can menace an otherwise promising career, weeds can menace your garden, and burglars are a menace to society.
Vocabulary lists containing menace
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"The Bells" by Edgar Allan Poe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The movie is disturbing precisely because it so accurately recreates the environments of the likes of “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” or “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” just with a lot more menace.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2026
Wardley's hands were low and his punches wild and telegraphed, lacking the menace he had shown in Manchester.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
“Jaws” is a fantastic film if you can suspend your disbelief about a great white being the menace of the seas.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026
For Kershaw, the postseason was a widely publicized menace throughout the previous decade.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
But there was a sense of menace that lingered in him long after.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
When these run out of legitimate purpose, they become actual menaces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
These might be helpful, anodyne retail chatbots; they also might be utter menaces like Google Docs’ Gemini pop-up.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
EU officials said that as part of the efforts they want to step up the mandatory registration of drones across the bloc to be able to better keep track of potential menaces.
From Barron's ● Feb. 11, 2026
It is a disgrace, he says, that the energy firms can send out "menaces" like that over a problem of their making.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2025
Holding kids deemed menaces to society in a place that would be completely normal if not for the twelve-foot barbed-wire-topped fences seems like someone’s bad idea of a joke.
From "Dear Martin" by Nic Stone
Hawaii was menaced by Hurricane Fausto last month, before the storm weakened and skirted north of the island chain.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
Sporting what they regard as a face “the color of boiled turnips,” he is first discovered sitting on a steamer trunk in the hall, ripe to be menaced by the family’s dogs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Even when the whole family is menaced, as in “Poltergeist,” the evil entities have a special yearning to possess little blonde girls.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2025
In the war’s heady early months, after Russian forces menaced Kyiv but then were forced to pull back, people flocked to the square to take selfies, and children played tag between the hulking wrecks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
That was another time of comparative coolness but menaced by the coming of the dark.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
Especially brilliant are the contributions of puppet designer James Ortiz, particularly the menacing tendrils that encase Willie.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 21, 2026
You see their runs are really menacing, so I felt they were knocking on the door.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2026
Released in June, the group’s fourth album, “Escrito en Agua,” is a bohemian tour de force — a bewitching combination of freestyle poetry, menacing Krautrock, melancholy shades of jazz and post-rock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026
Alas, “Out of the Further” merely serves up exploding televisions and cut-rate smoke machines, making this seemingly menacing purgatory feel more like a bummer way station.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
