empty threat
noun
: a threat that someone does not really mean
Don't make empty threats that you have no intention of backing up with action.
… the Witch of the West looks, in this scene anyhow, curiously frail and impotent, obliged to mouth empty threats …—
Salman Rushdie
Salman RushdieExamples of empty threat in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Given the potential blowback of cutting funds to the Colombian military, Trump’s announcement may be an empty threat.
—Alfie Pannell, Miami Herald, 20 Oct. 2025
Gallego called it an empty threat.
—Ronald J. Hansen, AZCentral.com, 26 Sep. 2025
Experts generally view these calls for the return of Alaska as an empty threat, but caution against what the Russian nationalist sentiment signals.
—Solcyré Burga, Time, 14 Aug. 2025
Another empty threat or altered Trump deadline would play into the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) sensitivities of his administration and be a gift to those who doubt that Trump is willing to really play hardball with the Kremlin.
—Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 28 July 2025
It was followed by Israel and Iran indulging in a heated military exchange, a subsequent but hitherto empty threat to close the Strait of Hormuz by Tehran, and a bombing by the U.S. of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
—Gaurav Sharma, Forbes.com, 27 June 2025
The Maduro regime, for its part, correctly estimated that the American bluster amounted to empty threats.
—Moisés Naím, Foreign Affairs, 28 Sep. 2021
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Alfie Pannell, Miami Herald, 20 Oct. 2025
Gallego called it an empty threat.
—Ronald J. Hansen, AZCentral.com, 26 Sep. 2025
Experts generally view these calls for the return of Alaska as an empty threat, but caution against what the Russian nationalist sentiment signals.
—Solcyré Burga, Time, 14 Aug. 2025
Another empty threat or altered Trump deadline would play into the TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) sensitivities of his administration and be a gift to those who doubt that Trump is willing to really play hardball with the Kremlin.
—Nick Paton Walsh, CNN Money, 28 July 2025
It was followed by Israel and Iran indulging in a heated military exchange, a subsequent but hitherto empty threat to close the Strait of Hormuz by Tehran, and a bombing by the U.S. of Iran’s nuclear facilities.
—Gaurav Sharma, Forbes.com, 27 June 2025
The Maduro regime, for its part, correctly estimated that the American bluster amounted to empty threats.
—Moisés Naím, Foreign Affairs, 28 Sep. 2021
Cite this Entry
“Empty threat.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/empty%20threat. Accessed 29 Nov. 2025.
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