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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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:
Gruff, bluff and radiating a coiled menace, he’s a marked asset.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 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
In a victim impact statement, Nurse's sister Samantha Carvalho described Sabat as a "menace to society", and said the "heartlessness" of the killing was "impossible to comprehend".
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
That makes it a menace in Berlin’s local government given the sharp rise in antisemitic incidents in the capital since 2023, including 2,197 last year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
The menace was coming very near now...Six out of ten!
From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie
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
But when a twister menaces their city, and Dad calls the boys while on the air, that goes viral and there’s actually a moral to the story.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2025
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
Slow-moving brackish water, threatening to swallow whatever comes near, menaces in the background.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 20, 2024
Speaking from the White House, President Eisenhower said he sent troops because “Mob rule in Little Rock menaces the very safety of the United States and the free world.”
From "Warriors Don't Cry: A Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals
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
Riddle of Fire Rated PG-13 for menaced kids and mumbled dialogue.
From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2024
The Colonel turned, swift as a wasp’s sting, and menaced into the gloom.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
And Dastmalchian, who portrays Bison with an emphasis on sniveling evil, struggles to quietly undercut the character’s cartoonishly menacing getup.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 16, 2026
“The Whisper Man” leans heavily on the twists and turns of its propulsive and menacing plot, which occasionally creaks like stairs to that creepy basement.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
The same grin can look menacing or jovial, depending on how Thatcher contorts the rest of her features.
From Salon ● Aug. 17, 2026
My inbox recently has been full of enthusiastic, and occasionally menacing, fans, wondering why I hadn’t tested Garmin, their favorite wrist-computer.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
A tank rumbled down the street, a mass of menacing metal.
From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman
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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.
