baleful

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (1)  · 
“
It throbs on the ear almost like the beating of a pulse--baleful, sepulchral, like the strokes of doom.

View all »
Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Portending evil; ominous. See Synonyms at sinister.
  2. adjective Harmful or malignant in intent or effect.
  3. usage note
    Baleful and baneful overlap in meaning, but baleful usually applies to something that is menacing or foreshadows evil: a baleful look. Baneful most often describes that which is actually harmful or destructive: baneful effects of their foreign policy.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
Examples (50)

  • Soon I thought, we shall gaze on her from the Earth and see not the familiar evening star, but the cold unwinking eye of a reptile-man, or the baleful orb of Dinosaur Tyrannus Rex! —  Wonder Stories Quarterly Summer 1932
  • Her look was baleful, as if just having got him sorted out, she must now disappoint him. —  Martha Grimes - The Old Silent
  • When any drop of it touched the earth, straightway it germinated, and produced something strange and baleful--a serpent, a scorpion, a plant of deadly nightshade or of henbane. —  History Of Egypt, Chaldæa, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, Volume 1 (of 12)
  • Yes, it is true, and--baleful for us both Hides her face in her hands, and turns away from him SIGURD (terror-stricken). —  The Vikings of Helgeland The Prose Dramas Of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. III.
  • A pale sliver of new moon made the red of the fires even more baleful, and the two who rode together looked back and felt the obsession of something they had never experienced before I am unhappy, Big Boy," sighed the girl. —  The Ramrodders A Novel
More examples »
 

Tags

baleful hasn't been tagged yet.

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 140 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

Add a related word »
Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

feral ·  unblinking ·  demonic ·  lurid ·  malevolent ·  steely ·  ominous ·  blue-white ·  hypnotic ·  beady ·  baneful ·  unholy
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (1)

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English baleful, baluful, from Anglo-Saxon bealufull, bealofull, from bealu, bealo, bale, + -full, -ful: see bale and -ful.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/ˈbeɪlfəl/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about once a year.

Recently looked up

mausoleum · unheeding · cogently · Monotheism · Roadster

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

Der dicke Dachdecker deckte dir dein Dach, drum dank dem dicken Dachdecker, dass der dicke Dachdecker dir dein Dach deckte. · weitläufig · und wenn sie nicht gestorben sind, so leben sie noch heute · redescheu · selbstverständlich