threaten

UK/ˈθɹɛt.n̩/US/ˈθɹɛt.n̩/

verbB24 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,733 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: threatened, threatening, threatens

To threaten someone is to tell them you will hurt or punish them unless they do what you want. A raised fist, a letter promising court, a boss mentioning how many people would take your job.

You threaten a person, and you threaten TO do something: he threatened to call the police. Things threaten as well, without saying a word, so the flood threatens the village, closure threatens two hundred jobs, and the clouds threaten rain. Threatening is the adjective for anything that feels dangerous, as in a threatening tone or a threatening sky, and threateningly is the adverb. The noun is threat, and it came first, since threaten is threat with a verb ending stuck on the end. Mind the sound: the th of think, then the vowel of red, THRET-en.

Definitions of threaten

1verbthreatenTo say you will hurt or punish someone if they do not do what you want.B2~9%
“He threatened the shopkeeper with a bottle and then ran.”
synonyms: menace, intimidate
2verbintendTo say you intend to do something unpleasant.B2~18%
“She threatened to resign if the plan went through.”
3verbendangerTo be a danger to something.B2~71%
“Rising water threatens every house along the lane.”
synonyms: endanger
4verblookTo look likely to happen, especially of bad weather.C1~2%
“The sky threatened rain all afternoon and delivered none.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 11 sentences found in the wild and placed 11 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Where it comes from

Threaten is threat plus the old verb ending -en, the same one that turns soft into soften. Middle English had thretenen and Old English threatnian, which meant to urge, force or compel: pressing somebody rather than frightening them. The Proto-Indo-European root trewd- is about pushing and squeezing, and that pressure is still what a threat does.

Proto-Indo-European
*trewd-
Old English
þrēatnian — to urge, force, compel
Middle English
thretenen
English, today
threaten

From Middle English thretenen, from Old English þrēatnian (“to urge, force, compel”), equivalent to threat + -en.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Crime & Law, A Man Called Ove, Ways of Speaking

First appears in chapter 2 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

threaten in the wild

In keeping with their traditional cultural associations as omens, they often threaten destruction to Earth.
Comets in fiction
The military, an institution designed to protect the polity, must also be strong enough to threaten the society it serves.
Civil–military relations
Ibrahim sent 1,500 men to attempt a landing near Areopoli and go north to threaten the Maniot rear.
Ottoman–Egyptian invasion of Mani
The capture of Landau in September allowed Louis William to threaten the French border region of Alsace.
Battle of Friedlingen
Meanwhile, Davidovich would threaten a descent from the north to distract the French.
Battle of Rovereto

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

threat

Definitions of threaten

1verbthreatenTo say you will hurt or punish someone if they do not do what you want.B2~9%

“He threatened the shopkeeper with a bottle and then ran.”

synonyms: menace, intimidate

2verbintendTo say you intend to do something unpleasant.B2~18%

“She threatened to resign if the plan went through.”

3verbendangerTo be a danger to something.B2~71%

“Rising water threatens every house along the lane.”

synonyms: endanger

4verblookTo look likely to happen, especially of bad weather.C1~2%

“The sky threatened rain all afternoon and delivered none.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 11 sentences found in the wild and placed 11 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.