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threaten

[thret-n]

Example Sentences

verb (used with object)

to utter a threat against; menace: He threatened the boy with a beating.

to be a menace or source of danger to: Sickness threatened her peace of mind.

to offer (a punishment, injury, etc.) by way of a threat: They threatened swift retaliation.

to give an ominous indication of: The clouds threaten rain.

verb (used without object)

to utter or use threats.

to indicate impending evil or mischief.

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Threaten is one of our favorite verbs.

So is hornswoggle. Does it mean:

chat, to converse

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

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Origin:
before 1000; Middle English thretnen, Old English thrēatnian, derivative of thrēat pressure, oppression. See threat, -en¹

Related forms

threat·en·er, noun

out·threat·en, verb (used with object)

pre·threat·en, verb (used with object)

re·threat·en, verb

Synonyms
2. endanger.

Antonyms
2. protect, defend.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To threaten

Example Sentences

How sluggish price-to-earnings ratios may threaten the stock market rally this year.

Obsolete systems threaten scholarship, even as technology promises a.

Genetics may yet threaten privacy, kill autonomy, make society homogeneous and gut the concept of human nature.

EXPAND

How sluggish price-to-earnings ratios may threaten the stock market rally this year.

Obsolete systems threaten scholarship, even as technology promises a.

Genetics may yet threaten privacy, kill autonomy, make society homogeneous and gut the concept of human nature.

But disease and inbreeding now threaten their herds-and.

Gaping holes in data threaten long-term wind and water measurements.

Now diseases threaten many varieties, prompting a search for new hybrids of.

But shrinking habitats threaten the existence of bees and many other wild creatures.

The high-energy particles that degrade spacecraft and threaten astronauts' health could actually help.

Weight training is crucial, of course, but never so much as to threaten injury.

Yet, huge global risks threaten to impede the pace of innovation.

Opponents of the industry claim cod farming will add to coastal pollution and further threaten salmon and sea trout populations.

Claim to hear voices, threaten to hurt yourself, stop.

More often than not, pen and ink dinosaurs threaten to stomp and chomp unlucky.

When temperatures threaten to dip below zero, bring the container into the garage or wrap it in a frost blanket.

But weather continues to threaten delay as wave after wave of tropical storms moves through the region.

Sometimes it is better to threaten a lawsuit rather than file one.

The tourists are partly responsible for invasive species that threaten endemic wildlife.

Torrential rains may threaten communities hundreds of miles away from the point of landfall.

Wastewater that is not properly treated can contaminate surface and groundwater and threaten public health.

Deforestation and the introduction of dogs, cats and mongooses that eat solenodons threaten to drive the critters to extinction.

The newly revealed attacks threaten to turn what started as an.

However, if you threaten a lawsuit, you'd better be prepared to follow up on your threat.

If they do, increased financing costs may threaten the country's remarkable turnaround.

See how its diversions, dams, and drought have altered river flow and threaten to change the lives of millions of people.

These activities threaten the survival and faithful replication of chromosomes and, consequently, of the cells housing them.

As the elements threaten the buildings and fortifications, so does a recent real estate boom.

The carriers argue that open phones would threaten the network.

The bully with improved social skills won't cease threatening you, but rather will threaten you more subtly.

Climate change may threaten mankind, but mankind has a good chance of averting it-if it puts its mind to it.

The plants favor hot, dry conditions and hence are unlikely to threaten rain forests.

Do not threaten a person with using their children as subjects…that makes you stupid.

Without the ability to threaten sites by filing a major.

People seem to worry that the educational experience will foster heretical perspectives that threaten the society.

Some stalkers threaten extreme violence, which a smaller number carry out.

Sometimes a sudden shift in color can be used to startle potential predators or threaten intruders.

Some drama queens are violent toward others, cut themselves or threaten suicide.

It will get worse and worse and threaten to destroy the entire universe.

But it's a medium with some inherent flaws that threaten to taint the selection process in its entirety.

Others in the island's small dissident movement threaten to follow.

Students identify which aspects of the culture threaten or benefit the local environment, and how.

Florida was concerned that the restricted flow would threaten certain endangered species.

The effects of fatigue, sleep deprivation, and stress threaten maintenance of standards and attention to detail.

It's real, tangible, and it does threaten seniors who allegedly are protected from such.

These types of trade remedies increasingly threaten the global trading system.

Melting ice and rising seas threaten their lives and cultures.

Let's track and disinfect all asteroids that threaten to land elsewhere.

With the counterterror commode, the only bombs that will threaten the public are the ones you drop yourself.

Call the company, ask them to cease the activity, threaten them with a law suit and go on about life.

Man-made greenhouse gases now threaten this stability.

Illegal hunting-poaching-of tigers and destruction of the forests in which they live threaten to erase tigers from the wild.

Schweickart says that future asteroids that threaten to strike must be pushed out of their orbits by advanced space technologies.

Click fraud could even threaten the paid search industry's entire business model.

But it warned that the board's poor leadership could eventually harm the system's bond rating and threaten its accreditation.

It will strike some as mystifying that a small, peripheral economy should suddenly threaten the world's biggest economic area.

Large sheets of ice, called floes, sometimes threaten to lock in ships and even sea-faring.

Furthermore, they have identified a pattern of seismic activity that may threaten the area again.

But agents threaten to drive a stake in the goodwill that educational opportunities afford.

The digital trade wars threaten to reverse the gains of this globalisation.

But the gallons of oil trapped underwater also threaten the ecosystem around the memorial.

Expanding dead zones not only spell trouble for biodiversity, but they also threaten the commercial fisheries of many nations.

And to threaten a professor's career because of such behavior is outrageous.

The long-term picture, by contrast, is one in which rising health-care costs threaten to explode the country's budget.

Dams, navigation projects, and habitat destruction also threaten the giant catfish.

When experimenters threaten the fake hand, brain areas corresponding to threat responses and withdrawal urges become more active.

Yet they made voters angry enough to threaten or end their careers.

They will then learn about some of the ways that exotic or invasive species can threaten the balance of the ecosystem.

Commercial plantations of hardwoods and coastal development further threaten these wild lands.

Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their species' survival.

But overfishing and global warming threaten to leave this vital habitat barren.

But new development proposals threaten to bury this historic ground once and for all.

Mobs often form after accidents and threaten the offending drivers.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

threaten (ˈθrɛt^ən)

—vb
1.	(tr) to be a threat to
2.	to be a menacing indication of (something); portend: dark clouds threatened rain
3.	(when tr, may take a clause as object) to express a threat to (a person or people)

'threatener

—n

'threatening

—*adj*

'threateningly

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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"What is addressed to us for contemplation does not threaten us, but makes us intellectual beings."

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