Hypertext Webster Gateway: "ominous"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Ominous \Om"i*nous\, a. [L. ominosus, fr. omen. See {Omen}.]
Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting
an omen; significant; portentous; -- formerly used both in a
favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter;
foreboding or foreshowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous
dread.
He had a good ominous name to have made a peace.
--Bacon.
In the heathen worship of God, a sacrifice without a
heart was accounted ominous. --South.
-- {Om"i*nous*ly}, adv. -- {Om"i*nous*ness}, n.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
ominous
adj 1: threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments; "a
baleful look"; "forbidding thunderclouds"; "his tone
became menacing"; "ominous rumblings of discontent";
"sinister storm clouds"; "a sinister smile"; "his
threatening behavior"; "ugly black clouds"; "the
situation became ugly" [syn: {baleful}, {forbidding},
{menacing}, {minacious}, {minatory}, {sinister}, {threatening},
{ugly}]
2: presaging ill-fortune; "ill omens"; "ill predictions"; "my
words with inauspicious thunderings shook heaven"-
P.B.Shelley;"a dead and ominous silence prevailed"; "a
by-election at a time highly unpropitious for the
Government" [syn: {ill}, {inauspicious}]
Additional Hypertext Webster Gateway Lookup
Gateway by dict@stokkie.net
stock only wrote the gateway and does not have any control over the contents;
see the Webster Gateway FAQ,
and also the Back-end/database links and credits.