threatening

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of threaten

adj

1. Presenting a threat, posing a likely risk of harm.

   “Never turn your back to someone who is displaying threatening behavior.”

   “Fie, fie, vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brovv, / And dart not ſcornefull glances from thoſe eies, / To vvound thy Lord, thy King, thy Gouernour.”

2. Making threats, making statements about a willingness to cause harm.

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)An act of threatening; a threat.

   “And nowe lorde beholde their threatenyngꝭ / and graunte vnto thy ſervauntꝭ wyth all confydence to ſpeake thy worde.”

   “In Mr. J. C. Hotten’s Life, and in Mr. A. W. Ward’s admirable monograph in the “English Men of Letters” Series, a paper of mine called “Pincher Astray” is attributed to Dickens.”