• threatning(obsolete)

• enPR:thrĕt′ənĭŋ,IPA^(key):/ˈθɹɛt.n̩.ɪŋ/

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• Hyphenation:threat‧en‧ing

FromMiddle Englishthretenyng,þreteninde, equivalent tothreaten +‎-ing.

threatening

1. presentparticiple andgerund ofthreaten

threatening (comparativemorethreatening,superlativemostthreatening)

1. Presenting athreat,posing alikelyrisk ofharm.

   Never turn your back to someone who is displayingthreatening behavior.

   • c.1590–1592 (date written),William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, inMr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London:[…]Isaac Iaggard, andEd[ward] Blount, published1623,→OCLC,[Act V, scene ii],page229, column 1:

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

2. Makingthreats,makingstatements about awillingness tocauseharm.

• minacious,menacing,threatensome(dialectal),threatful(rare)

• frightening

FromMiddle Englishthretenyng,thretnynge,þretnynge, equivalent tothreaten +‎-ing.

threatening (countable anduncountable,pluralthreatenings)

1. An act of threatening; athreat.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.],The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany:Peter Schöffer],→OCLC,Acts iiij:[29],folio clix, recto:

     And nowe lorde beholde theirthreatenyngꝭ / and graunte vnto thy ſervauntꝭ wyth all confydence to ſpeake thy worde.

   • 1864 January 30, [authorship claimed byEdmund Yates], “Pincher Astray”, inCharles Dickens, editor,All The Year Round. A Weekly Journal., volume X, number249, London:Chapman and Hall,page539, column 2:

     The butcher’s boy—a fierce and beefy youth, who openly defied the dog, and waved him off with hurlings of his basket andthreatenings of his feet, accompanied by growls of “Git out, yer beast!”—now entered silently;

     Edmund Yates (1884) “A Dickens Chapter”, inEdmund Yates: His Recollections and Experiences, volume II, London:Richard Bentley and Son,page111: “In Mr. J. C. Hotten’sLife, 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.”