menace
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L323803 on Wikidata ↗verb
- threaten
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈmɛnɪs/
noun
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).
- A perceived threat or danger.
“the dark menace of the distant war.”
- The act of threatening.
- An annoying and bothersome person or thing.
verb
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.
- To make threats against (someone); to intimidate.
“to menace a country with war”
“My master […] did menace me with death.”
- 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.”
“By oath he menaced / Revenge upon the cardinal.”
- To endanger (someone or something); to imperil or jeopardize.