baleful

Definition

Portending evil; ominous.

Etymology

From Middle English baleful, balful, baluful, from Old English bealuful, which was equivalent to bealu + -ful. By surface analysis, bale (“evil, woe”) + -ful. See bale for further etymology.

Example Sentences

• "The street-lamps burn amid the baleful glooms, Amidst the soundless solitudes immense Of ranged mansions dark and still as tombs."
• "According to them all sorcerers, necromancers and evil-doers were born under the baleful influence of the seventh calendic sign[.]"
• "[…] he went off alone with his family, and, watched by the day's red baleful eye, pumped the pump-car homeward, […]"