baleful

[beyl-fuhl]

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adjective

full of menacing or malign influences; pernicious.
Obsolete. wretched; miserable.

Origin of baleful

before 1000; Middle English; Old English bealofull. See bale², -ful

Related formsbale·ful·ly, adverbbale·ful·ness, noun

Can be confusedbaleful baneful

Synonyms for baleful

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1. harmful, malign, injurious, detrimental; evil, wicked; deadly.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for baleful

calamitous, deadly, dire, evil, foreboding, harmful, hurtful, injurious, malevolent, malignant, noxious, ominous, pernicious, ruinous, sinister, threatening, venomous, vindictive, woeful

Examples 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.
Holocaust Horrors Haunt the Films ‘Ida’ And ‘The German Doctor’
Jack Schwartz
May 12, 2014

Historical Examples of baleful

Of all mortal possessions they are the most useless, mischievous, and baleful.
Imogen
William Godwin
THEN the baleful fiend its fire belched out, and bright homes burned.
Beowulf
Anonymous
Richard paled under the baronet's baleful, half-sneering glance.
Mistress Wilding
Rafael Sabatini
Gian Maria returned him no answer, but his baleful eye was upon Martino.
Love-at-Arms
Raphael Sabatini
As he disappeared her beautiful face darkened with a baleful cloud.
Victor's Triumph
Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

British Dictionary definitions for baleful

baleful

adjective

harmful, menacing, or vindictive
archaic dejected

Derived Formsbalefully, adverbbalefulness, noun

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.