menace
nounverbattested in dialogue
- //ˈmɛnɪs//
A perceived threat or danger.
noun
- 1
A perceived threat or danger.
the dark menace of the distant war.
- 2
The act of threatening.
- 3
informalAn annoying and bothersome person or thing.
Etymology
From Middle English manace, from Old French manace, menace, &c., from Late Latin minācia (“threat, menace”), from Latin mināx (“threatening”) + -ia (suffix forming abstract nouns).
verb
- 1
To make threats against (someone); to intimidate.
to menace a country with war
My master […] did menace me with death.
Bradley Barcola, on for Kvaratskhelia, menaced with his jet-heeled pace on the counter.
- 2
To threaten (an evil to be inflicted).
Upon his browes was pourtraid vgly death, And in his eies the furies of his heart, That ſhine as Comets, menacing reueng, And caſts a pale complexion on his cheeks.
By oath he menaced / Revenge upon the cardinal.
- 3
To endanger (someone or something); to imperil or jeopardize.
Etymology
First attested in 1303: from Middle English manacen, from Old French menacer, manecier, manechier and Anglo-Norman manasser, from the assumed Vulgar Latin *mināciāre, from Latin minācia, whence the noun.
Forms
- plural
- menaces
- past tense
- menaced
- past participle
- menaced
- present participle
- menacing
- third person singular
- menaces