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Nearby Words
| Main Entry: |
threaten
 [thret-n] 
|
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | warn, pressure |
| Synonyms: | abuse, admonish, augur, blackmail, bluster, browbeat, bully, caution, comminate, cow, enforce, flex muscles, forebode, forewarn, fulminate, growl, intimidate, look daggers, make threat, menace, portend, presage, pressurize, push around, scare, scowl, shake fist at, snarl, spook, terrorize, torment, walk heavy |
| Antonyms: | alleviate, help, protect, relieve |
| Main Entry: | threatening |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | menacing, ominous |
| Synonyms: | aggressive, alarming, apocalyptic, at hand, baleful, baneful, black, bullying, cautionary, close, comminatory, dangerous, dire, fateful, forthcoming, grim, ill-boding, imminent, impendent, impending, inauspicious, intimidatory, looming, loury, lowering, lowery, minacious, minatory, near, overhanging, portending, portentous, scowling, sinister, terrorizing, ugly, unlucky, unpropitious, unsafe, upcoming, warning |
| Antonyms: | nice, pleasant |
| Main Entry: | aggressive |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | belligerent, hostile |
| Synonyms: | advancing, antipathetic, assailing, attacking, barbaric, bellicose, combative, contentious, destructive, disruptive, disturbing, encroaching, hawkish, intruding, intrusive, invading, martial, militant, offensive, pugnacious, quarrelsome, rapacious, threatening, warlike |
| Antonyms: | calm, easy-going, laid-back |
Example Sentences
- Menacing body posture can be as threatening as a frightening facial expression, according to new research.
- Now, say people close to the review, the staff members are threatening to take their names off the masthead.
- Its cash reserves were running dry, and the company's credit card processor was threatening to cut off service.
| Main Entry: | approach |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | come nearer |
| Synonyms: | advance, approximate, be comparable to, be like, bear, belly up to, border, buzz*, catch up, close in, come, come at, come close, compare with, contact, converge, correspond to, creep up, draw near, equal, gain on, go toward, impend, loom up, match, meet, move in on, move toward, near, progress, reach, resemble, surround, take after, threaten, verge upon |
| Antonyms: | depart, distance, go away, leave |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | baleful |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | menacing |
| Synonyms: | calamitous, deadly, dire, evil, foreboding, harmful, hurtful, injurious, malevolent, malignant, noxious, ominous, pernicious, ruinous, sinister, threatening, venomous, vindictive, woeful |
| Notes: | something is baleful that intends or portends harm or injury; something is baneful that produces harm or injury - thus, a glance may be baleful, an herb or poison baneful |
| Antonyms: | advantageous, auspicious, favorable, good, helping, promising |
| Main Entry: | black |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | hopeless |
| Synonyms: | atrocious, bleak, depressing, depressive, dismal, dispiriting, distressing, doleful, dreary, foreboding, funereal, gloomy, horrible, lugubrious, mournful, ominous, oppressive, sad, sinister, sombre, threatening |
| Antonyms: | hopeful, optimistic |
| Main Entry: | black |
| Part of Speech: | adjective |
| Definition: | angry |
| Synonyms: | enraged, fierce, furious, hostile, menacing, resentful, sour, sullen, threatening |
| Antonyms: | happy |
| Main Entry: | blackmail |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | intimidating for money |
| Synonyms: | badger, bleed, coerce, compel, demand, exact, extort, force, hold to ransom, milk, put the shake on, ransom, shake down, shake*, squeeze*, threaten |
* = informal/non-formal usage
| Main Entry: | brandish |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | flaunt, swing around |
| Synonyms: | come on strong, display, disport, exhibit, expose, flash, gesture, parade, raise, shake, show, show off, sport, swing, threaten, throw weight around, trot out, warn, wield |
| Antonyms: | not show |
Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition
Copyright © 2012 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Copyright © 2012 by the Philip Lief Group.
Cite This Source
Dictionary.com, LLC. Copyright © 2012. All rights reserved.
