| Main Entry: | threaten |
| 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: | threaten |
| Part of Speech: | verb |
| Definition: | endanger |
Synonyms: |
advance, approach, be dangerous, be gathering, be imminent, be in the air, be in the offing, be on the horizon, brewing, come on, forebode, foreshadow, frighten, hang over, impend, imperil, jeopardize, loom, overhang, portend, presage, put at risk, put in jeopardy, warn |
Antonyms: |
guard, protect, save |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |