menacing
adjective
men·ac·ing
ˈme-nə-siŋ 
: presenting, suggesting, or constituting a menace or threat : threatening
a menacing look
menacing words
[Harold E. Edgerton] … was also one of the first to take photographs of the menacing mushroom cloud emanating from a nuclear blast.—
Benjamin Genocchio
Benjamin GenocchioRansomware is a menacing scam that involves locking businesses out of their computers and demanding payment of a ransom in exchange for the return of company systems and data.—Roger Williams
Roger WilliamsThe image is chilling: a series of menacing bear traps laid out like footsteps.—Emily DeNitto
Emily DeNitto
menacingly
adverb
A man stepped menacingly from the corner brandishing a long pole …
—Elizabeth George Speare
Elizabeth George Speare
"If you shout his name I will curse you into oblivion," muttered Tonks menacingly …
—J. K. Rowling
J. K. Rowling
Examples of menacing in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
That inter-zone between the two is where Lynch lived his entire professional life: in his paintings and writings, shorts and TV shows, and even his daily online weather reports, which somehow took on both a boyish and a menacing quality.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 16 Jan. 2025
Onlookers captured them interacting and throwing paper planes at one another, all under the watchful eye of the Tillman’s menacing Milchick.
—Jake Kanter, Deadline, 15 Jan. 2025
The first of them holds all of the story’s promise, as a tense prologue introduces us to a pre-teen kid named Blake, whose military-like father (Sam Jaeger, all menacing toxic machismo) is hell-bent upon teaching his son how to survive the world on his own.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 15 Jan. 2025
In addition to David Howard Thornton playing the menacing murderous mouse in Screamboat, the film also stars Tyler Posey, Amy Schumacher, Allison Pittel, Jesse Posey, Jesse Kove and Thornton’s Terrifier 2 co-star Kailey Hyman.
—Tim Lammers, Forbes, 14 Jan. 2025
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David Fear, Rolling Stone, 16 Jan. 2025
Onlookers captured them interacting and throwing paper planes at one another, all under the watchful eye of the Tillman’s menacing Milchick.
—Jake Kanter, Deadline, 15 Jan. 2025
The first of them holds all of the story’s promise, as a tense prologue introduces us to a pre-teen kid named Blake, whose military-like father (Sam Jaeger, all menacing toxic machismo) is hell-bent upon teaching his son how to survive the world on his own.
—David Ehrlich, IndieWire, 15 Jan. 2025
In addition to David Howard Thornton playing the menacing murderous mouse in Screamboat, the film also stars Tyler Posey, Amy Schumacher, Allison Pittel, Jesse Posey, Jesse Kove and Thornton’s Terrifier 2 co-star Kailey Hyman.
—Tim Lammers, Forbes, 14 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for menacing
Dictionary Entries Near menacing
Cite this Entry
“Menacing.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/menacing. Accessed 22 Jan. 2025.
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