ominous Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    minatory; minacious; sinister; threatening; forbidding; baleful; menacing.
    • 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
  2. adjective satellite presaging ill fortune
    ill; inauspicious.
    • ill omens
    • ill predictions
    • my words with inauspicious thunderings shook heaven"- P.B.Shelley
    • a dead and ominous silence prevailed
    • a by-election at a time highly unpropitious for the Government

WordNet

Om"i*nous adjective
Etymology
L. ominosus, fr. omen. See Omen.
Definitions
  1. 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.
    He had a good ominous name to have made a peace. Bacon.
    In the heathen worship of God, a sacrifice without a heart was accounted ominous. South.
    -- Om"i*nous*ly, adv. -- Om"i*nous*ness, n.

Webster 1913