v. Forms: 1 þreatnian, 3 þret(t)ne(n, þretni, 4–5 þret(t)en, 4–6 threten, thretne, 6 thretten, Sc. threiten, (6–8 thretn-), 6– threaten. [OE. þréat-n-ian, f. þréat, THREAT sb. + -EN5 2.]
† 1. trans. To press, urge, force; = THREAT v.1 1. Only in OE.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 424. Neadað se deofol eow þæt ʓe cristene men to his biʓgengum ðreatniað?
2. To try to influence (a person) by menaces; to utter or hold out a threat against; to declare (usually conditionally) one’s intention of inflicting injury upon (in quot. 1816, one’s certainty that some specified injury will fall upon); to menace. Const. with the thing; also with compl. clause (with finite vb. or inf.).
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 35/41. He þrettnede faste hermogenes.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 2391. Þe picars were wroþe ek & þretnede him ynou.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), III. 419. Alisaundre þretteneþ þe Iewes.
14[?]. Sir Beues, 3341 (MS. N.). He me thretenyd for to slen. [Ibid. (15[?]), (Pynson), 3001. He threteneth me to be slayne.]
1474. Caxton, Chesse, II. v. (1883), 68. A tyrant dide do tormente Anamaximenes & thretenyd hym for to cutte of his tonge.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 177 b. Traian commaunded hym to speke no more of it, thretnynge hym, that yf he dyd, he sholde lese his heed.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxxi. 186. Threatning them with Punishment.
1715. De Foe, Fam. Instruct., I. iv. (1841), I. 83. I won’t be threatened neither.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xliv. In vain his wife … hung by his skirts, threatening him with death … for meddling with other folks’ matters.
1834. Picture of Liverpool, 39. All classes were threatened to be overwhelmed in one universal ruin.
† b. To charge or command with threats of punishment or displeasure; to command sternly or strictly. (Chiefly in biblical versions.) Obs.
1382. Wyclif, Mark viii. 30. And he thretenyde hem, that thei schulden nat seie to ony man of him.
1526. Tindale, Acts iv. 17. Lett vs threten and chaurge them that they speake hence forth to noo man in this name.
1555. Eden, Decades, 158. They … threatned them to auoyde the lande excepte they woolde bee distroyed euery manne.
1582. N. T. (Rhem.), Mark i. 25. And Iesvs threatened him, saying, Hold thy peace, and goe out of the man.
c. fig. (chiefly of impersonal agents or objects): To be likely to injure; to be a source of danger to; to endanger actively.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzac’s Lett. (vol. II.), 34. Perhaps the tempest that threatens my head will fall but at my feet.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 302. The wind … blew very hard, threatening us with a storm.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xix. II. 139. The Persian monarch, elated by victory, again threatened the peace of Asia.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, x. I. 381. Where one threatens the existence of another.
1877. Froude, Short Stud. (1883), IV. I. ii. 23. France and England had been … drawn together by a special danger which threatened Christendom.
3. To hold out or offer (some injury) by way of a threat; to declare one’s intention of inflicting. a. with infin. or clause as obj.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 11209. Þe burgeis were þo bolde, & þretnede to nime mo.
1567. Satir. Poems Reform., vi. 71. The Propheit threitnit … That war and battell sould his land pas throw.
1649. Bp. Reynolds, Serm. Hosea, iv. 59. God threatneth terribly to shake the earth.
1682. Bunyan, Holy War, 49. They threatned also what men they would be.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. iii. 146. Threatning to murder all who should oppose them.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxi. IV. 663. He was at last forced to threaten that he would immediately make the whole matter public.
b. with sb. or pron. as obj.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 9383. Mid word he þretneþ muche & lute deþ in dede.
c. 1450. R. Gloucester’s Chron. (1724), 483/1, note (MS. Coll. Arms). He meketh prout men, and he thretneth werre.
1590. Marlowe, 2nd Pt. Tamburl., V. iii. These cowards … threaten conquest on our sovereign.
1649. Bp. Reynolds, Serm. Hosea, i. 43. They … should unwillingly suffer what he threatneth.
1774. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 498. The party that has lost the election threatens a petition.
1844. H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, II. xii. II. 585. Reluctant to inflict the penalty that had been threatened.
4. fig. Of things, conditions: To give ominous indication of (impending evil); to presage, portend.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., III. iii. 4. The skies looke grimly, And threaten present blusters.
1644. Evelyn, Diary, 22 Oct. Another pendant Towre like that at Pisa, always threatning ruine.
1818–20. E. Thompson, trans. Cullen’s Nosol. Method. (ed. 3), 247. A sense of hunger threatening syncope.
1863. W. C. Baldwin, Afr. Hunting, viii. 339. The weather constantly threatens rain.
intr. (for pass.). 1850. D. G. Mitchell, Reveries Bachelor, 175. Hostilities would sometimes threaten between the school and village boys.
b. with infin.: To appear likely to do some evil.
1780. Mirror, No. 81, ¶ 9. I am sometimes … frightened with dangers that threaten to diminish it [my estate].
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iv. It threatens to be wet to night.
1899. ‘A. Hope,’ King’s Mirr., ix. Age had not bent, but it threatened to break him.
Mod. The new drainage scheme threatens to be an expensive undertaking.
5. absol. or intr. To utter or use threats; to declare one’s intention of injuring or punishing in order to influence. a. lit. (absol. use of 2 or 3).
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 10308. Nou sir clerc quaþ þe king ȝe mowe þretni ynou.
c. 1450. trans. De Imitatione, III. xviii. 86. Þou shalt not þreten euerlastingly.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. iv. 57. An eye like Mars, to threaten or command.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 221. If too closely pursued, they [snakes] hiss and threaten.
1864. in Ellacombe, Ch. Bells Devon, etc. (1872), 267. Do not threaten,… never let down your dignity by one single word of violence.
b. fig. (absol. use of 2 c or 4). To portend evil.
1610. Shaks., Temp., V. i. 178. Though the Seas threaten they are mercifull.
1725. Pope, Odyss., II. 6. A two-edged faulchion threatened by his side.
1793. Mann, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 437. Our political horizon blackens and threatens more and more.
Mod. The weather threatens.
¶ 6. To threaten kindness (upon a person): app. an altered form of the phrase to threap kindness: see THREAP v. 4 b. Obs.
1560. Daus, Sleidane’s Comm., 247. The byshop of Rome sendeth his letters to the Swisses, & threatning vpon them kindnes, for the frenship that had ben betwene them & his predecessours.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron. (1807), II. 249. The moonks being overcome with the kings words, threatning kindnesse upon them, fulfilled his request.
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 84. Philautus … threatneth such kindenesse at my handes, and suche curtesie at yours, that he shoulde accompt me his wife before he woe me.
Hence Threatenable a., that may be threatened.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess., Exper., Wks. (Bohn), I. 186. The chagrins which the bad heart gives off … take form … and threaten or insult whatever is threatenable and insultable in us.
