Defn: An obstinate decision or determination; a pertinacious affirmation. [Prov. Eng. & Scot.] He was taken a threap that he would have it finished before the year was done. Carlyle.
THREAT
Threat, n. Etym: [AS. , akin to a to vex, G. verdriessen, OHG.
irdriozan, Icel. to fail, want, lack, Goth. us to vex, to trouble,
Russ. trudite to impose a task, irritate, vex, L. trudere to push.
Cf. Abstruse, Intrude, Obstrude, Protrude.]
Defn: The expression of an intention to inflict evil or injury on
another; the declaration of an evil, loss, or pain to come; meance;
threatening; denunciation.
There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats. Shak.
THREAT
Threat, v. t. & i. Etym: [OE. , AS. . See Threat, n.]
Defn: To threaten. [Obs. or Poetic] Shak.
Of all his threating reck not a mite. Chaucer.
Our dreaded admiral from far they threat. Dryden.
THREATEN
Threat"en, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Threatened; p. pr. & vb. n.
Threatening.] Etym: [OE. . See Threat, v. t.]
1. To utter threats against; to menace; to inspire with apprehension; to alarm, or attempt to alarm, as with the promise of something evil or disagreeable; to warn. Let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. Acts iv. 17.
2. To exhibit the appearance of (something evil or unpleasant) as approaching; to indicate as impending; to announce the conditional infliction of; as, to threaten war; to threaten death. Milton. The skies look grimly And threaten present blusters. Shak.
Syn. — To menace. — Threaten, Menace. Threaten is Anglo-Saxon, and menace is Latin. As often happens, the former is the more familiar term; the latter is more employed in formal style. We are threatened with a drought; the country is menaced with war. By turns put on the suppliant and the lord: Threatened this moment, and the next implored. Prior. Of the sharp ax Regardless, that o'er his devoted head Hangs menacing. Somerville.
THREATEN
Threat"en, v. i.