threatening

[thret-n-ing]

adjective

1. tending or intended to menace.

   threatening gestures.

2. causing alarm, as by being imminent; ominous; sinister.

   threatening clouds.

Other Word Forms

• threateningly adverb
• nonthreatening adjective
• nonthreateningly adverb
• unthreatening adjective
• unthreateningly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of threatening¹

First recorded in 1520–30; threaten + -ing ²

Synonym Study

See imminent, ominous.

Example Sentences

Nandy said that "if necessary, the football regulator can intervene in order to remove an owner who is threatening the future of the club".

From BBC

Hardliners in Tehran are also worried and are threatening to block the project.

From BBC

It was a pointed response to conservative outrage, including Fox News commentators questioning whether a Puerto Rican should headline “America’s game” and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem reportedly threatening ICE enforcement at the event.

From Salon

Apart from some surveillance, tailing suspects, one fatal encounter and an occasional chase, there’s little in the way of capital-A Action, mostly just a lot of talk — inquisitive, instructive, threatening, discursive, domestic or speechifying.

From Los Angeles Times

From a team threatening to carry all before it earlier in the season, albeit without being at their best and relying on late goals, Liverpool now look rocky.

From BBC

Related Words

• aggressive 
• alarming 
• cautionary 
• dangerous 
• dire 
• sinister 
• ugly