threatening

American

[thret-n-ing] / ˈθrɛt n ɪŋ /

adjective

tending or intended to menace.

threatening gestures.
causing alarm, as by being imminent; ominous; sinister.

threatening clouds.

Related Words

See imminent, ominous.

Other Word Forms

nonthreatening adjective
nonthreateningly adverb
threateningly adverb
unthreatening adjective
unthreateningly adverb

Etymology

Origin of threatening

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

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.

The driver of the bus, a man in his 60s, was taken to hospital "with serious injuries which are not believed to be life threatening".

From BBC

Jofra Archer was more threatening, more accurate, against Scotland after conceding 90 runs combined against Nepal and West Indies.

From BBC

Ruby said federal authorities have told him that “rogue content creators” played a key role in amplifying complaints from several disgruntled individuals, and that led to the threatening messages he and his church have received.

From Salon

And yet the AI frontrunners—most notably Anthropic, OpenAI, and SpaceX—just keep getting bigger and bigger, threatening to crowd out all the other companies that aspire to go public this year.

From Barron's

It recently broke out of a bull flag pattern at the very round $200 level, yet is now threatening to slip back below that pivot.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023