sinister Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    minatory; minacious; threatening; forbidding; baleful; ominous; 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 stemming from evil characteristics or forces; wicked or dishonorable
    dark; black.
    • black deeds
    • a black lie
    • his black heart has concocted yet another black deed
    • Darth Vader of the dark side
    • a dark purpose
    • dark undercurrents of ethnic hostility
    • the scheme of some sinister intelligence bent on punishing him"-Thomas Hardy
  3. adjective satellite on or starting from the wearer's left
    • bar sinister

WordNet

Sin"is*ter adjective
Etymology
Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, as Shakespeare, Milton, Dryden.
L. sinister: cf. F. sinistre.
Definitions
  1. On the left hand, or the side of the left hand; left; -- opposed to dexter, or right. "Here on his sinister cheek." Shak.
    My mother's blood Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister Bounds in my father's Shak.
    ✍ In heraldy the sinister side of an escutcheon is the side which would be on the left of the bearer of the shield, and opposite the right hand of the beholder.
  2. Unlucky; inauspicious; disastrous; injurious; evil; -- the left being usually regarded as the unlucky side; as, sinister influences.
    All the several ills that visit earth, Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth. B. Jonson.
  3. Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest; corrupt; as, sinister aims.
    Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts. Bacon.
    He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts. South.
    He read in their looks . . . sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself. Sir W. Scott.
  4. Indicative of lurking evil or harm; boding covert danger; as, a sinister countenance.

Webster 1913