idle threat
Americannoun
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.
Or maybe the signs had been an idle threat.
From Los Angeles Times • May 26, 2022
The State Department has made clear it was not just an idle threat.
From Slate • Mar. 30, 2019
Chinese officials say they do not dismiss anything as an idle threat.
From New York Times • May 29, 2018
Journalists realized that they couldn’t go around reporting every idle threat that popped up on Twitter, which has cost Anonymous much of its credibility.
From Salon • Jun. 3, 2012
Apparently I’d frightened him with my idle threat earlier.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
