threatening

threatening

English

Alternative forms

• threatning (obsolete)

Etymology

From threaten +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• enPR: thrĕt′ənĭŋ, IPA^(key): /ˈθɹɛt.n̩.ɪŋ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: threat‧en‧ing

Verb

threatening

1. present participle of threaten

Adjective

threatening (comparative more threatening, superlative most threatening)

1. Presenting a threat, posing a likely risk of harm.

   Never turn your back to someone who is displaying threatening behavior.

2. Making threats, making statements about a willingness to cause harm.

Synonyms

• minacious, menacing

Hypernyms

• frightening

Derived terms

• life-threatening
• nonthreatening, non-threatening
• threateningly
• threateningness
• unthreatening

 

Translations

presenting a threat

Belarusian: пагража́льны (pahražálʹny), пагро́злівы (pahrózlivy) Bulgarian: заплашителен (bg) (zaplašitelen) Catalan: amenaçador (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 威脅的／威胁的 (zh) (wẽixiéde) Finnish: uhkaava (fi) French: menaçant (fr) German: drohend (de) Greek: απειλητικός (el) (apeilitikós) Ancient: ἀπειλητικός (apeilētikós) Latin: minax, minitābundus Macedonian: закану́вачки (zakanúvački) Maori: hākiwakiwa (of clouds), pōkerekere (of clouds), pōrukuruku (of clouds), whakawetiweti, whakawehiwehi, whakahakahaka, takareko (of rain), paroro (of the weather) Norwegian: Bokmål: truende Nynorsk: trugande Plautdietsch: dreiwent Polish: arcygroźny (pl) Portuguese: ameaçador m Romanian: amenințător (ro) Russian: угрожа́ющий (ru) (ugrožájuščij) Spanish: amenazador (es) Swedish: hotfull (sv) Ukrainian: загро́зливий (zahrózlyvyj), погро́зливий (pohrózlyvyj)

Noun

threatening (countable and uncountable, plural threatenings)

1. An act of threatening; a threat.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], OCLC 762018299, Acts iiij:[29], folio clix, recto:

     And nowe lorde beholde their threatenyngꝭ / and graunte vnto thy ſervauntꝭ wyth all confydence to ſpeake thy worde.

   • 1864 January 30, [authorship claimed by Edmund Yates], “Pincher Astray”, in Charles Dickens, editor, All The Year Round. A Weekly Journal., volume X, number 249, London: Chapman and Hall, page 539, column 2:

     The butcher’s boy—a fierce and beefy youth, who openly defied the dog, and waved him off with hurlings of his basket and threatenings of his feet, accompanied by growls of “Git out, yer beast!”—now entered silently;

     Edmund Yates (1884), “A Dickens Chapter”, in Edmund Yates: His Recollections and Experiences, volume II, London: Richard Bentley and Son, page 111: “In Mr. J. C. Hotten’s Life, and in Mr. A. W. Ward’s admirable monograph in the “English Men of Letters” Series, a paper of mine called “Pincher Astray” is attributed to Dickens.”