| 释义 |
threaten, v.|ˈθrɛt(ə)n|
Forms: 1 þreatnian, 3 þret(t)ne(n, þretni, 4–5 þret(t)en, 4–6 threten, thretne, 6 thretten, Sc. threiten, (6–8 thretn-), 6– threaten.
[OE. þréat-n-ian, f. þréat, threat n. + -en5 2.]
†1. trans. To press, urge, force; = threat v.1 1. Only in OE.
c1000ælfric Hom. I. 424 Neadað se deofol eow þæt ᵹe cristene men to his biᵹgengum ðreatniað?
2. a. To try to influence (a person) by menaces; to utter or hold out a threat against; to declare (usually conditionally) one's intention of inflicting injury upon (in quot. 1816, one's certainty that some specified injury will fall upon); to menace. Const. with the thing; also with compl. clause (with finite vb. or inf.).
c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 35/41 He þrettnede faste hermogenes. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 2391 Þe picars were wroþe ek & þretnede him ynou. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 419 Alisaundre þretteneþ þe Iewes. 14..Sir Beues 3341 (MS. N.) He me thretenyd for to slen. [15..Ibid. (Pynson) 3001 He threteneth me to be slayne.] 1474Caxton Chesse ii. v. (1883) 68 A tyrant dide do tormente Anamaximenes & thretenyd hym for to cutte of his tonge. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 177 b, Traian commaunded hym to speke no more of it, thretnynge hym, that yf he dyd, he sholde lese his heed. 1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxxi. 186 Threatning them with Punishment. 1715De Foe Fam. Instruct. i. iv. (1841) I. 83, I won't be threatened neither. 1816Scott Old Mort. xliv, In vain his wife..hung by his skirts, threatening him with death..for meddling with other folks' matters. 1834Picture of Liverpool 39 All classes were threatened to be overwhelmed in one universal ruin.
†b. To charge or command with threats of punishment or displeasure; to command sternly or strictly. (Chiefly in biblical versions.) Obs.
1382Wyclif Mark viii. 30 And he thretenyde hem, that thei schulden nat seie to ony man of him. 1526Tindale Acts iv. 17 Lett vs threten and chaurge them that they speake hence forth to noo man in this name. 1555Eden Decades 158 They..threatned them to auoyde the lande excepte they woolde bee distroyed euery manne. 1582N. T. (Rhem.) Mark i. 25 And Iesvs threatened him, saying, Hold thy peace, and goe out of the man.
c. fig. (chiefly of impersonal agents or objects): To be likely to injure; to be a source of danger to; to endanger actively.
1638R. Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. II.) 34 Perhaps the tempest that threatens my head will fall but at my feet. 1725De Foe Voy. round World (1840) 302 The wind..blew very hard, threatening us with a storm. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. xix. II. 139 The Persian monarch, elated by victory, again threatened the peace of Asia. 1835Thirlwall Greece x. I. 381 Where one threatens the existence of another. 1877Froude Short Stud. (1883) IV. i. ii. 23 France and England had been..drawn together by a special danger which threatened Christendom.
3. To hold out or offer (some injury) by way of a threat; to declare one's intention of inflicting.
a. with infin. or clause as obj.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 11209 Þe burgeis were þo bolde, & þretnede to nime mo. 1567Satir. Poems Reform. vi. 71 The Propheit threitnit..That war and battell sould his land pas throw. 1649Bp. Reynolds Serm. Hosea iv. 59 God threatneth terribly to shake the earth. 1682Bunyan Holy War 49 They threatned also what men they would be. 1748Anson's Voy. ii. iii. 146 Threatning to murder all who should oppose them. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxi. IV. 663 He was at last forced to threaten that he would immediately make the whole matter public.
b. with n. or pron. as obj.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 9383 Mid word he þretneþ muche & lute deþ in dede. c1450R. Gloucester's Chron. (1724) 483/1 note (MS. Coll. Arms), He meketh prout men, and he thretneth werre. 1590Marlowe 2nd Pt. Tamburl. v. iii, These cowards..threaten conquest on our sovereign. 1649Bp. Reynolds Serm. Hosea i. 43 They..should unwillingly suffer what he threatneth. 1774Burke Corr. (1844) I. 498 The party that has lost the election threatens a petition. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India ii. xii. II. 585 Reluctant to inflict the penalty that had been threatened.
4. fig. Of things, conditions: To give ominous indication of (impending evil); to presage, portend.
1611Shakes. Wint. T. iii. iii. 4 The skies looke grimly, And threaten present blusters. 1644Evelyn Diary 22 Oct., Another pendant Towre like that at Pisa, always threatning ruine. 1818–20E. Thompson tr. Cullen's Nosol. Method. (ed. 3) 247 A sense of hunger threatening syncope. 1863W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting viii. 339 The weather constantly threatens rain.
intr. (for pass.)1850D. G. Mitchell Reveries Bachelor 175 Hostilities would sometimes threaten between the school and village boys.
b. with infin.: To appear likely to do some evil.
1780Mirror No. 81 ⁋9, I am sometimes..frightened with dangers that threaten to diminish it [my estate]. 1848Dickens Dombey iv, It threatens to be wet to night. 1899‘A. Hope’ King's Mirr. ix, Age had not bent, but it threatened to break him. Mod. The new drainage scheme threatens to be an expensive undertaking.
5. absol. or intr. To utter or use threats; to declare one's intention of injuring or punishing in order to influence.
a. lit. (absol. use of 2 or 3).
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 10308 Nou sir clerc quaþ þe king ȝe mowe þretni ynou. c1450tr. De Imitatione iii. xviii. 86 Þou shalt not þreten euerlastingly. 1602Shakes. Ham. iii. iv. 57 An eye like Mars, to threaten or command. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 221 If too closely pursued, they [snakes] hiss and threaten. 1864in Ellacombe Ch. Bells Devon, etc. (1872) 267 Do not threaten,..never let down your dignity by one single word of violence.
b. fig. (absol. use of 2 c or 4). To portend evil.
1610Shakes. Temp. v. i. 178 Though the Seas threaten they are mercifull. 1725Pope Odyss. ii. 6 A two-edged faulchion threatened by his side. 1793Mann in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden) 437 Our political horizon blackens and threatens more and more. Mod. The weather threatens.
¶6. to threaten kindness (upon a person): app. an altered form of the phrase to threap kindness: see threap v. 4 b. Obs.
1560J. Daus Sleidane's Comm. 247 The byshop of Rome sendeth his letters to the Swisses, & threatning vpon them kindnes, for the frenship that had ben betwene them & his predecessours. 1577–87Holinshed Chron. (1807) II. 249 The moonks being overcome with the kings words, threatning kindnesse upon them, fulfilled his request. 1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 84 Philautus..threatneth such kindenesse at my handes, and suche curtesie at yours, that he shoulde accompt me his wife before he woe me.
7. In weakened use: to express an intention to do something, not necessarily evil.
1925Dialect Notes V. 344 Threaten, v.i., promise; as, he threatened to give me money. 1928A. Huxley Let. 1 May (1969) 296 [He] was lunching here today and broached a notion about a preliminary limited edition... He threatens to come and talk to you about it.
Hence ˈthreatenable a., that may be threatened.
1841–4Emerson Ess., Exper. Wks. (Bohn) I. 186 The chagrins which the bad heart gives off..take form..and threaten or insult whatever is threatenable and insultable in us. |
