Library / English Dictionary

THREATEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

To utter intentions of injury or punishment against

Example:

He threatened me when I tried to call the police

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "threaten" is one way to...):

warn (notify of danger, potential harm, or risk)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "threaten"):

offer (threaten to do something)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody with something
Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Sentence example:

Sam cannot threaten Sue

Sense 2

Meaning:

To be a menacing indication of something

Example:

Danger threatens

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "threaten" is one way to...):

augur; auspicate; betoken; bode; forecast; foreshadow; foretell; omen; portend; predict; prefigure; presage; prognosticate (indicate, as with a sign or an omen)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Pose a threat to; present a danger to

Example:

The pollution is endangering the crops

Synonyms:

endanger; imperil; jeopardise; jeopardize; menace; peril; threaten

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "threaten" is one way to...):

be; exist (have an existence, be extant)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something
Somebody ----s to INFINITIVE

Credits

 Context examples: 

At last, as they drew near the end of their journey, this treacherous servant threatened to kill her mistress if she ever told anyone what had happened.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

More than half of prostate cancers stay within the gland and don’t become life-threatening.

(Biomarker Signatures of Prostate Cancer, NIH)

The loss of beneficial bacteria increases the risk of certain life-threatening infectious diseases and graft-versus-host disease (GVHD).

(Fecal microbiota transplantation helps restore beneficial bacteria in cancer patients, National Institutes of Health)

If it grows large enough, it can press against the brain, becoming life-threatening.

(Acoustic Neuroma, NIH: National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders)

A life threatening condition due to inadequate levels of glucocorticoids in an individual with adrenal insufficiency.

(Adrenal Crisis, NCI Thesaurus)

When they affect your breathing or heart function, these disorders can be life-threatening.

(Autonomic Nervous System Disorders, NIH: National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke)

Then my temper got the better of me, and I began to threaten her.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They write to the wife, and threaten to come and expose her.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

EXAMPLE(S): resulted in death, required hospitalization, was life threatening

(Adverse Event Seriousness Code, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)

They were coming through the brushwood and threatening to cut us off.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)