threaten
[thret-n]
- to utter a threat against; menace: He threatened the boy with a beating.
- to be a menace or source of danger to: Sickness threatened her peace of mind.
- to offer (a punishment, injury, etc.) by way of a threat: They threatened swift retaliation.
- to give an ominous indication of: The clouds threaten rain.
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- to utter or use threats.
- to indicate impending evil or mischief.
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Origin of threaten
Synonyms
See more synonyms for threaten on Thesaurus.com2. endanger.
Antonyms
2. protect, defend.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for threatened
Contemporary Examples
We see the Southern segregationists who threatened his life and that of his family on an almost daily basis.
More recently, Boko Haram shocked the world by kidnapping 276 female students and threatened to traffic them.
ISIS, Boko Haram, and the Growing Role of Human Trafficking in 21st Century TerrorismLouise I. Shelley
December 26, 2014
To give the truth its rights, you have to see that groups like TMOC were threatened by peaceful protest.
The collective had threatened attacks on theaters if the movie was not pulled.
Women like (gaming blogger Anita Sarkeesian) were threatened, doxxed, and driven from their homes.
10 Things That Made Us Want to Turn Off the Internet Forever in 2014The Daily Beast
December 15, 2014
Historical Examples
It was sultry, and there was something in the atmosphere that at once threatened and soothed.
MalboneThomas Wentworth Higginson
Mr. Lovelace's threatened vengeance is in return for threatened vengeance.
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
In other words Mr. Gladstone was threatened with total blindness.
The Grand Old ManRichard B. Cook
You hear, brother, with what strange diseases he has threatened me.
The Imaginary InvalidMolire
It was refused, whereupon Morgan threatened that no quarter should be given.
Howard Pyle's Book of PiratesHoward Pyle
threaten
- (tr) to be a threat to
- to be a menacing indication of (something); portenddark clouds threatened rain
- (when tr, may take a clause as object) to express a threat to (a person or people)
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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 threatened
threaten
v.
Old English þreatnian (see threat). Related: Threatened. Threatening in the sense of "portending no good" is recorded from 1520s.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper