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[ verb ] pose a threat to; present a danger to
Synonyms Examples "The pollution is endangering the crops" Used in print (The Detroit News...)In Vientiane , the royal Laotian government decided today to ask its `` friends and neighbors '' for help in fighting what it called a new rebel offensive threatening the southeast Asian kingdom . (Los Angeles Times,...)Draper declared , `` As I see it , this country has never faced such great dangers as threaten us today . (Saturday Review, 44: 15...)Education must_not be limited to our youth but must be a continuing process through our entire lives , for it is only through knowledge that we , as a nation , can cope_with the dangers that threaten our society . (National Review...)I have done all this for the freedom of the individuals concerned and also for the states which have been threatened by Communist domination ' . (Perry Miller "Theodore Parker: Apostasy within Liberalism"...)The fact is incontestable : that liberal world of Unitarian_Boston was narrow-minded , intellectually sterile , smug , afraid_of the logical consequences of its own mild ventures into iconoclasm , and quite prepared to resort to hysterical repressions when its brittle foundations were threatened . |
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[ verb ] to utter intentions of injury or punishment against:"He threatened me when I tried to call the police"
Used in print ("Editorials"...)Khrushchev threatens us with a 100 - megaton_bomb ? The official military establishment can only threaten to use its nuclear arms ; it cannot bring them into actual play . (The Providence Journal...)Miss_Stuart is as intensely vibrant as one could wish , almost an icy shriek threatening to explode at any moment . (Jim Berry Pearson, The Maxwell Land Grant....)Both Cook 's and Russell 's lives were threatened by the Mexicans following the killing , but the company officers felt that in_the_end , it would serve to quiet them despite their immediate emotion . (Clayton C. Barbeau, The Ikon....)Looming over all , Papa-san leered down at him , threatening a_hundred hidden malevolencies . |
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[ verb ] to be a menacing indication of something:"The clouds threaten rain"
Examples "Danger threatens" Used in print (Saturday Review, 44: 15...)Headquarters of the Nassau system is an increasingly busy place these days , threatening to expand beyond its boundaries . (The Miami Herald,...)His policies had resolved the conflicts that threatened to ignite the cold_war and workable solutions were beginning to take_shape . (The Wall Street Journal,...)It sometimes threatens to linger in the memory after the final curtain , and some of_it , such_as the catchy `` Sez I '' , does . (Howard J. Parad, "Preventive casework: problems...)Soon Mrs._B . 's fears threatened to burst into a full-blown panic concerning the welfare of the entire family . Related terms |
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