Ominous
['ɒmɪnəs] or ['ɑmɪnəs]
Definition
(a.) Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant; portentous; -- formerly used both in a favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter; foreboding or foreshowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous dread.
Edited by Horace
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Portentous, monitory, premonitory.
Checked by Ives
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Portentous, suggestive, threatening, foreboding, premonitory, unpropitious
ANT:Auspicious, propitious, encouraging
Inputed by Leonard
Definition
adj. pertaining to or containing an omen: foreboding evil: inauspicious.—adv. Om′inously.—n. Om′inousness.
Edited by Flo
Examples
- That sounded ominous. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- He swore ominous oaths over the drugged beer of alehouses, and drank strange toasts in fiery British gin. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- A ground sea was heard; the thunder of its progress, as the waters rolled and swelled beneath me, became every moment more ominous and terrific. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- The talk took refuge in less ominous topics; but everything they touched on seemed to confirm Mrs. Archer's sense of an accelerated trend. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- Wherever I looked I saw the ominous words that ran in it repeated. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- He was thankful for the fact, yet felt it to be vaguely ominous. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- Our child is dead, and the present hour is dark and ominous. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- That something wanting was my own recognition of the ominous likeness between the fugitive from the asylum and my pupil at Limmeridge House. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Both Helena and her lover grew pale at these ominous words. Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- To Lily this attitude was the most ominous, because the most perplexing, element in the situation. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- She told me quite cheerfully, not as an ominous circumstance, which I felt it to be. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- An ominous crowd gathered to see him dismount of the posting-yard, and many voices called out loudly, Down with the emigrant! Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- Cedric would have avoided pledging her in this ominous conviviality, but the sign which she made to him expressed impatience and despair. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
Edited by Flo