threatening

Pluralthreatenings

1. 1
   adjective

   Posing a likely risk of harm; presenting danger to someone or something.

   The flooding river became increasingly threatening to the village downstream.

   A threatening shadow loomed across the narrow alley.

   Similarmenacing, dangerous, ominous, sinister, hazardous

   Oppositeharmless, safe, benign, reassuring

   Note

   Here the danger lies in how something looks or behaves, not in anything said. Shakespeare applies it to a face in The Taming of the Shrew: "that threatening unkind brow" that darts scornful glances. Compare it with the sense of making threats. Threatening weather or a threatening stare signals harm, while a threatening letter states it in words.

2. 2
   adjective

   Making threats; expressing a willingness to cause harm to someone.

   Police investigated the threatening letters mailed to the mayor.

   She reported his threatening behavior to her supervisor.

   Similarmenacing, intimidating, hostile, aggressive

   Oppositefriendly, reassuring, conciliatory

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle of threaten.

   The company is threatening legal action against its rival.

   Rising sea levels are threatening coastal towns around the world.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every meaning of the verb, not just menace. Clouds can be threatening rain, a runner threatening a record, a new finding threatening an old theory. With a to-infinitive it warns of what is coming: the roof is threatening to collapse. Placed before a noun, as in a threatening look, it has become the adjective of danger, which can be graded: more threatening, most threatening.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The action of making a threat; a warning of an intent to cause harm.

   Threatening of jurors can lead to a mistrial.

   The statute criminalizes the threatening of government workers.

   Similarintimidation, menacing, coercion

   Note

   A noun with a long life, going back to Middle English thretenyng. It has a plural with a scriptural ring: William Tyndale's New Testament of 1526 asks the Lord to "beholde their threatenyngs." It also works uncountably, usually with the and of: the threatening of jurors, the threatening of officials. In ordinary countable use, threat is the plainer choice.

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