baleful

bale·ful

adjective \-fəl\

Definition of BALEFUL

1

: deadly or pernicious in influence <baleful effects>

2

: foreboding or threatening evil <a baleful look>

— bale·ful·ly \-fə-lē\ adverb

— bale·ful·ness \-fəl-nəs\ noun

Examples of BALEFUL

1. the baleful effects of water pollution
2. <a dark, baleful sky portending a tornado>

First Known Use of BALEFUL

before 12th century

Related to BALEFUL

Synonyms

ominous, dire, direful, doomy, foreboding, ill, ill-boding, inauspicious, menacing, minatory, portentous, sinister, threatening

Antonyms

unthreatening

Related Words

black, bleak, cheerless, chill, Cimmerian, cloudy, cold, comfortless, dark, darkening, depressing, depressive, desolate, dim, disconsolate, dismal, drear, dreary, dreich [chiefly Scottish], elegiac (also elegiacal), forlorn, funereal, gloomy, glum, godforsaken, gray (also grey), lonely, lonesome, lugubrious, miserable, morbid, morose, murky, plutonian, saturnine, sepulchral, somber (or sombre), sullen, sunless, tenebrific, tenebrous, wretched; discouraging, disheartening, hopeless, unfavorable, unpromising, unpropitious; ill-fated, ill-starred, star-crossed, troubled, unfortunate, unlucky; evil, malign, malignant

Near Antonyms

auspicious, benign, bright, encouraging, favorable, golden, heartening, hopeful, promising, propitious, prosperous

See Synonym Discussion at sinister

Rhymes with BALEFUL

wailful