threaten
Etymology

From Middle English thretenen, from Old English þrēatnian, equivalent to .

Pronunciation
  • enPR: thrĕt′n̩, IPA: /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/
Verb

threaten (threatens, present participle threatening; simple past and past participle threatened)

  1. To make a threat against someone; to use threats.
    • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Hocussing of Cigarette ↗”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC ↗; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831 ↗, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:
      No one, however, would have anything to do with him, as Mr. Keeson's orders in those respects were very strict ; he had often threatened any one of his employés with instant dismissal if he found him in company with one of these touts.
    He threatened me with a knife.
  2. To menace, or be dangerous.
    The rocks threatened the ship's survival.
  3. To portend, or give a warning of.
    Antonyms: promise
    The black clouds threatened heavy rain.
  4. To call into question the validity of (a belief, idea, or viewpoint); to challenge.
    The new information threatened our original hypothesis.
  5. (figuratively) To be close to equaling or surpassing (a record, etc.)
    • 2000, Lew Freedman, Diamonds in the Rough: Baseball Stories from Alaska, ISBN 0945397828, page 69
      The player quickly surmised that things weren't kosher and the suddenly wiser ballplayer threatened the world record for the fifty-yard dash as he sought safety. As Reynolds dived into the van, Dietz and the other players rolled with laughter.
Translations Translations Translations


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
Offline English dictionary