threat Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun something that is a source of danger
    menace.
    • earthquakes are a constant threat in Japan
  2. noun a warning that something unpleasant is imminent
    • they were under threat of arrest
  3. noun declaration of an intention or a determination to inflict harm on another
    • his threat to kill me was quite explicit
  4. noun a person who inspires fear or dread
    terror; scourge.
    • he was the terror of the neighborhood

WordNet

Threat noun
Etymology
AS. reát, akin to areótan to vex, G. verdriessen, OHG. irdriozan, Icel. rjota to fail, want, lack, Goth. usriutan to vex, to trouble, Russ. trudite to impose a task, irritate, vex, L. trudere to push. Cf. Abstruse, Intrude, Obstrude, Protrude.
Definitions
  1. 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 transitive verb & intransitive verb
Etymology
OE. reten, AS. reátian. See Threat, n.
Definitions
  1. To threaten. Obs. or Poetic Shak.
    Of all his threating reck not a mite. Chaucer.
    Our dreaded admiral from far they threat. Dryden.

Webster 1913