baleful
- full of menacing or malign influences; pernicious.
- Obsolete. wretched; miserable.
Origin of baleful
Synonyms for baleful
See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.comRelated Words for baleful
calamitous, deadly, dire, evil, foreboding, harmful, hurtful, injurious, malevolent, malignant, noxious, ominous, pernicious, ruinous, sinister, threatening, venomous, vindictive, woefulExamples from the Web for baleful
Contemporary Examples of baleful
She will unearth more than their remains in a quest that becomes a journey of baleful discovery and painful self-discovery.
Historical Examples of baleful
Of all mortal possessions they are the most useless, mischievous, and baleful.
ImogenWilliam Godwin
THEN the baleful fiend its fire belched out, and bright homes burned.
BeowulfAnonymous
Richard paled under the baronet's baleful, half-sneering glance.
Mistress WildingRafael Sabatini
Gian Maria returned him no answer, but his baleful eye was upon Martino.
Love-at-ArmsRaphael Sabatini
As he disappeared her beautiful face darkened with a baleful cloud.
Victor's TriumphMrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth
baleful
- harmful, menacing, or vindictive
- archaic dejected
Word Origin and History for baleful
Old English bealu-full "dire, wicked, cruel," from bealu "harm, injury, ruin, evil, mischief, wickedness, a noxious thing," from Proto-Germanic *balwom (cf. Old Saxon balu, Old Frisian balu "evil," Old High German balo "destruction," Old Norse bol, Gothic balwjan "to torment"), from PIE root *bheleu- "to beat." During Anglo-Saxon times, the noun was in poetic use only (e.g. bealubenn "mortal wound," bealuðonc "evil thought"), and for long baleful was extinct, but it was revived by modern romantic poets. Related: Balefully.