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View synonyms for threat

threat

[ thret ]

noun

  1. a declaration of an intention or determination to inflict punishment, injury, etc., in retaliation for, or conditionally upon, some action or course:

    His family convinced him to take the anonymous threats seriously and call the police.

  2. an indication or warning of probable trouble, or of being at risk for something terrible:

    The threat of a storm was in the air.

    He confessed under the threat of imprisonment.

  3. a person or thing that threatens:

    Her attorney will try to convince the judge that she is not a threat to herself or others.



verb (used with or without object)

  1. Archaic. to threaten:

    Do you dare to accuse and threat within my very home?

threat

/ θrɛt /

noun

  1. a declaration of the intention to inflict harm, pain, or misery
  2. an indication of imminent harm, danger, or pain
  3. a person or thing that is regarded as dangerous or likely to inflict pain or misery


verb

  1. an archaic word for threaten

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Other Words From

  • coun·ter·threat [koun, -ter-thret], noun

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Word History and Origins

Origin of threat1

First recorded before 900; Middle English noun thret(e) “crowd, multitude, verbal menace,” Old English thrēat “crowd, pressure, oppression, punishment”; cognate with Old Norse thraut “hardship, great struggle”; verb from the noun; threaten ( def )

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Word History and Origins

Origin of threat1

Old English; related to Old Norse thraut, Middle Low German drōt

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Idioms and Phrases

see triple threat .

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Example Sentences

When communism was a threat, it was construed as a communist plot.

But this war jumps from city to city, depending the threat of the day.

But his solution to this metastasizing threat is, in some ways, counterintuitive.

“The threat streams to U.S. interests and Western interests are off the chart,” he said.

The Perfect Storm writer talks combat brotherhood and the threat posed by growing wealth inequality.

That cold, sneering voice, with its note of threat, was like a hand of ice upon his overheated brain.

Her voice was stern; it bore to the girl's ears a subtle, unworded repetition of the threat the Marquise had already voiced.

Was it the threat of Tony's near arrival that made her confession—and his dismissal—at last inevitable?

Recall his threat when coughed down on the occasion of his maiden speech in the House of Commons.

It throve because it came with the tempting bribe of Heaven in one hand, and the withering threat of Hell in the other.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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