menace

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   express a threat either by an utterance or a gesture

   I menaced the bank manager with a stick.

2. 2
   noun

   a threat or the act of threatening

   They spoke with desperate menace.

3. 3
   noun

   A perceived threat or danger.

   the dark menace of the distant war.

4. 4
   verb

   To make threats against (someone); to intimidate.

   to menace a country with war

5. 5
   verb

   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.

6. 6
   verb

   pose a threat to

7. 7
   noun

   something that is a source of danger

8. 8
   verb

   act in a threatening manner

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.