threatening

English

Alternative forms

• threatning (obsolete)

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: threat‧en‧ing

Etymology 1

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

Verb

threatening

1. present participle and gerund 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.

   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 229, column 1:

     Fie, fie, vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brovv, / And dart not ſcornefull glances from thoſe eies, / To vvound thy Lord, thy King, thy Gouernour.

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

Synonyms

• minacious, menacing, threatensome (dialectal), threatful (rare)

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) (wēixié de)

• 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 (pt) m
• Romanian: amenințător (ro)
• Russian: угрожа́ющий (ru) (ugrožájuščij)
• Spanish: amenazador (es)
• Swedish: hotfull (sv)
• Ukrainian: загро́зливий (zahrózlyvyj), погро́зливий (pohrózlyvyj)

Etymology 2

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

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, 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.”