threat

Definition

An expression of intent to injure or punish another.

Etymology

From Middle English threte, thret, thrat, thræt, threat, from Old English þrēat (“crowd, swarm, troop, army, press; pressure, trouble, calamity, oppression, force, violence, threat”), from Proto-Germanic *þrautaz, closely tied to Proto-Germanic *þrautą (“displeasure, complaint, grievance, labour, toil”), from Proto-Indo-European *trewd- (“to squeeze, push, press”), whence also Middle Low German drōt (“threat, menace, danger”), Middle High German drōz (“annoyance, disgust, horror, terror, fright”), Icelandic þraut (“struggle, labour, distress”), Russian труд (trud, “work, labour”), Polish trud (“hard work”), Latin trūdō (“push”, verb).

Example Sentences

• "There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats."
• "At the height of the crisis, according to a retired SAC wing commander, SAC airborne alert bombers deliberately flew past their turnaround points toward Soviet airspace, an unambiguous threat which Soviet radar operators would certainly have recognized and reported. "I knew what my target was," the SAC general adds: "Leningrad." The bombers only turned around when the Soviet freighters carrying missiles to Cuba stopped dead in the Atlantic."
• "Verifying and addressing actual threats is not paranoia."

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