Forms: 1–3 þreat, (1 ðreot(t, ðreatt), 2 þreatt, 3 þræt, 3–4 þrat, 4 þret, thrett, 4–5 þret(e, thret(e, 6 thrette, 6– threat. [OE. þréat masc. (With sense 2 cf. ON. þraut fem. struggle, labor, trouble):—OTeut. *þrautoz, -ā, from ablaut-series *þreut-, þraut-, þrut- (cf. OE. þréotan to trouble, weary, Goth. us-þriutan to trouble, threaten, OHG. ir-drioʓan, MHG. ver-drioʓen, Ger. ver-driessen, Du. verdrieten to trouble, vex; cf. L. trūdĕre to press, thrust). Sense 1 has the same form as 2 in OE. and early ME., and is commonly considered the same word; it appears to go back, like ‘throng’ and ‘press (of people),’ to the radical sense ‘to press.’]

1

  I.  † 1. A throng, press, crowd, multitude of people; a troop, band, body of men. Obs.

2

Beowulf, 2406. Se wæs on ðam ðreate þreotteoða secg.

3

a. 800.  Cynewulf, Elene, 329. Hio … Þrungon … on þreate.

4

c. 950.  Lindisf. Gosp., Mark iii. 32. ʓesætt ymb hine ðreat [c. 975 Rushw. G. ðe ðreatt, L. turba]. Ibid., viii. 2. Ic milsa ofer ðreat [R. ðreott].

5

c. 1205.  Lay., 9791. Riden ut to-some … þritti þusend þe þræt wes þa mare. Ibid., 26294. Hit is feole ȝere þat heore þrættes [c. 1275 þretes] comen here.

6

  II.  † 2. Painful pressure, oppression, compulsion; vexation, torment; affliction, distress, misery; danger, peril. Obs.

7

a. 800.  Cynewulf, Juliana, 465. Is þeos þraʓ ful strong, þreat ormæte; ic sceal þinga ʓehwylc þolian.

8

971.  Blickl. Hom., 119. Hie seoþþan ealle worlde wean & ealle þreatas oforhoʓodan.

9

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 61. Listeð nu wich þreat dauid setted uppen us bute [we] lesten ure bihese.

10

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 55. Þenne þrat moste I þole.

11

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron., Prol. (1810), p. xcviii. With mykelle wo, In sclaundire, in threte & in thro.

12

13[?].  Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., xliv. 36. And þretes—þo beoþ vuele þre, ffurst and hunger and þesternesse.

13

c. 1450.  Lovelich, Grail, xiii. 606. They wenden han put him to gret thret.

14

  3.  A denunciation to a person of ill to befall him; esp. a declaration of hostile determination or of loss, pain, punishment, or damage to be inflicted in retribution for or conditionally upon some course; a menace. Also fig. an indication of impending evil.

15

  The radical sense appears to be ‘pressure applied to the will by declaration of the harm that will follow non-compliance.’ It is thus indirect compulsion.

16

  It is doubtful whether quots. c. 1000 belong here or to sense 2.

17

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, xxv. 220. Ac mathathias nolde … godes a forgæʓan for his [the king’s] gramlican ðreate. Ibid., xxviii. 105. Ða hæþenan … heton hine secgan mid swyðlicum þreate hweþer he cristen wære.

18

c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues, 87. Oðerhwile cumeð maniȝe þohtes of godes þreatt of helle pines.

19

a. 1250.  Owl & Night., 58. Ne recche ich nouht of þine þrete.

20

c. 1325.  Song of Yesterday, 148, in E. E. P. (1862), 137. Ȝif þi neiȝebor þe manas Oþer to culle oþer to bete … þou wold drede þi neiȝebores þrete.

21

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 14 b. Wherby he myght scape the menasses and threttes of god.

22

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 66. There is no terror Cassius in your threats.

23

1750.  Gray, Elegy, 62. The threats of pain and ruin to despise.

24

1874.  Green, Short Hist., vii. § 1. 348. He met the hostility of the nobles with a threat which marked his power.

25

1884.  Manch. Exam., 19 Feb., 5/4. Clouds full of the threat of rain.

26