Idioms

threaten

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(redirected from threateningly)

threaten (one) with

To use some specific punishment as a warning for someone to do or not do something. His parents threatened him for a week without video games if he didn't clean up his room. We must aim to topple any government that threatens its citizens with imprisonment or bodily harm for merely offering a dissenting opinion.
See also: threaten
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

threaten someone with someone or something

to warn someone that there will be punishment in the form of someone or something if conditions are not met. No, no! Your Uncle Herman is not coming here! Please don't threaten me with Uncle Herman! Are you threatening me with bodily harm?
See also: threaten
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

threaten with

v.
To express a threat against someone by some means or action: The principal threatened the rowdy students with expulsion.
See also: threaten
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs. Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive
We see Susan pleading with police to get involved after three men stand threateningly outside her house.
26mins: Arsenal loanee Akpom breaks threateningly, but shoots wide.
Both England players told match referee David Boon that Jadeja had turned threateningly towards James Anderson, and the latter had acted in self defence.
It was alleged that he produced a penknife with a two inch blade which he waved threateningly.
(In the foundations of this sort of play of course they follow a long tradition with perhaps the most celebrated being the creative games of the four Bronte children.) But there is one forbidden doll, a glass cased adult's investment, who exerts an ominously and threateningly foreboding presence: a figure as is later revealed closely related to the death, probably the murder, of a young girl in the late nineteenth century.
But a 40-minute video of the incident released by the justice department showed the Taiwanese vessel had not acted threateningly but only tried to escape before the shooting started.
Unemployment, which also grows threateningly, must also be tackled," said Oresharski.
So, they began gesturing threateningly and, we're sure they thought, articulately.
Police were forced to intervene when some of the angry bondholders moved threateningly towards members of the board, forcing Philippou to call a premature end to the meeting
Each one's hand held a can of malt liquor just dangling them threateningly and I had to grin to myself.
Some of the North's fighter jets flew threateningly close to the border recently, the spokesman said.
Mehmet said the sdfgsdfgsdfgsdfgdfggdfsg man flashed his lights, came up close threateningly, and he saw in his mirror that the chaser was putting his hand across his neck saying "You're dead".
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