delivering bad news; foreboding; threatening
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Ominous Definition from Language, Idioms & Slang Dictionaries & Glossaries
(a.)
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.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), edited by Noah Porter. AboutOf 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.
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. in the heathen worship of god, a sacrifice without a heart was accounted ominous. -- om"i*nous*ly , adv. -- om"i*nous*ness , n.
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]
Portentous.
Adjective
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"
(synonym) baleful, forbidding, menacing, minacious, minatory, sinister, threatening, ugly
(similar) alarming
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"
(synonym) ill, inauspicious
(similar) unpropitious
