[f. as prec. + -ING1.] The action of the verb THREATEN; menacing; also, an instance of this, a threat.
c. 1290. St. Kenelm, 242, in S. Eng. Leg., I. 352. So gret þretningue for him heo made.
1388. Wyclif, Acts iv. 29. And now, Lord, biholde in to the thretnyngis [1382 thretingis] of hem.
1489. Caxton, Faytes of A., I. xvi. 46. By thretnyng he shal also fraye hem.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. IV., 7 b. The said kyng … menaced theym with sore thretenynges.
1611. Bible, Eph. vi. 9. Doe the same things vnto them, forbearing threatning.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1840), II. iii. 54. The Spaniards, despising their threatening.
1865–6. H. Phillips, Amer. Paper Curr., II. 12. The threatenings of war were then only heard at a distance.
