threatening

1 giving signs of immediate occurrence economists warning of a threatening recession Synonyms impending, looming, pending, imminentRelated Words approaching, coming, forthcoming, future, near, nearing, oncoming, upcoming; brewing, gathering; likely, possible, probable; inevitable, unavoidable; apocalyptic (also apocalyptical), lowering, menacing, ominous, portentous; anticipated, awaited, expected, foreseen, predictedNear Antonyms distant, far-off, remote; eventual, ultimate; bygone, former, past; late, recent

2 being or showing a sign of evil or calamity to come a threatening silence followed the loud thump in the adjoining motel room Synonyms baleful, dire, direful, doomy, foreboding, ill, ill-boding, inauspicious, menacing, minatory, portentous, sinister, ominousRelated 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, malignantNear Antonyms auspicious, benign, bright, encouraging, favorable, golden, heartening, hopeful, promising, propitious, prosperousAntonyms unthreatening

3 involving potential loss or injury threatening rocks lined that narrow stretch of the river through which we would be rafting Synonyms grave, grievous, hazardous, jeopardizing, menacing, parlous, perilous, risky, serious, dangerous, unhealthy, unsafe, venturesomeRelated Words dicey, insecure, precarious, treacherous, uncertain; ultrahazardous; chance, haphazard, random; distressing, sickening, unpleasant; ugly, wicked; adverse, bad, baleful, baneful, deleterious, detrimental, evil, harmful, hurtful, ill, inimical, injurious, malignant, nasty, noxious, pernicious, pestilent; deadly, deathly, destructive, dire, fatal, fateful, fell, killer, lethal, mortal, murderousNear Antonyms advantageous, beneficial, good; ultrasafeAntonyms harmless, innocent, innocuous, nonhazardous, nonthreatening, safe, unthreatening