baleful
ba·le·ful
adjective
1.
- “the Florida eagles have a fierce baleful look”
2.
threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
- “a baleful look”
- “forbidding thunderclouds”
- “his tone became menacing”
- “ominous rumblings of discontent”
- “sinister storm clouds”
- “a sinister smile”
- “his threatening behavior”
- “ugly black clouds”
- “the situation became ugly”
Origin
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.
Related words
Word family
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.