DICT.TW Dictionary Taiwan

 Threat·en v. t. [imp. & p. p. Threatened p. pr. & vb. n. Threatening.]
 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.
 The skies look grimly
 And threaten present blusters.   --Shak.
 Syn: -- To menace.
 Usage: -- 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.

 threatened
      adj : (of flora or fauna) likely in the near future to become
            endangered; "the spotted owl is a threatened species,
            not yet an endangered one"