Threatening

//ˈθɹɛtə.nɪŋ// adj, noun, verb

adj, noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An act of threatening; a threat. countable, uncountable

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

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of threaten form-of, gerund, participle, present
Adjective
  1. 1
    Presenting a threat, posing a likely risk of harm.

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

  2. 2
    Making threats, making statements about a willingness to cause harm.
Adjective
  1. 1
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments wordnet
  2. 2
    darkened by clouds wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
alarmingdarkintimidatingmenacingominousabout to be

Example

More examples

"The sky had become threatening before I got to the station."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English thretenyng, þreteninde, equivalent to threaten + -ing.

Etymology 2

From Middle English thretenyng, thretnynge, þretnynge, equivalent to threaten + -ing.

Related phrases

life-threateningnon-threatening

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.