menace
/ˈmɛnɪs/ noun, verb
Forms menaces menacing menaced
- noun A perceived threat or danger.
- noun The act of threatening.
- noun (informal) An annoying and bothersome person or thing.
- verb (transitive) To make threats against (someone); to intimidate. “to menace a country with war”
- verb To threaten (an evil to be inflicted).
- verb To endanger (someone or something); to imperil or jeopardize.
Synonyms
minacity minacy threat endanger jeopardize jeopardise threaten imperil peril
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).
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.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The show of an intention to inflict evil; a threat or threatening; indication of a probable evil or catastrophe to come.
- verb To express or show an intention to inflict, or to hold out a prospect of inflicting, evil or injury upon; to threaten; --usually followed by with before the harm threatened; as, to menace a country with war. My master . . . did menace me with death. Shak.
- verb To threaten, as an evil to be inflicted.
- verb To act in threatening manner; to wear a threatening aspect.
Etymology [F., fr. L. minaciae threats, menaces, fr. minax, - acis, projecting, threatening, minae projecting points or pinnacles, threats. Cf. Amenable, Demean, Imminent, Minatory.]
Etymology [OF. menacier, F. menacer. See Menace, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “menace”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details