baleful
[beyl-fuh l]
- full of menacing or malign influences; pernicious.
- Obsolete. wretched; miserable.
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Origin of baleful
Synonyms
See more synonyms for baleful on Thesaurus.com1. harmful, malign, injurious, detrimental; evil, wicked; deadly.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for baleful
Contemporary Examples
She will unearth more than their remains in a quest that becomes a journey of baleful discovery and painful self-discovery.
Historical Examples
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
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for baleful
adj.
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper