Definition: 1. Pose a threat to; present a danger to. 2. To utter intentions of injury or punishment against:"He threatened me when I tried to call the police" 3. To be a menacing indication of something.
Use 'threaten' in a sentence:
1. If she threatens to leave, it should bring him to his senses.
2. This is a trend which threatens the very fabric of society.
3. The government is threatening to take drastic action.
4. The presidents will meet to try and diffuse the tensions that threaten to reignite the conflict.
5. They broke my windows and threatened me.
6. At their worst, they may threaten to take their children out of college or cut off funds.
7. Not only does that threaten to rub off on users, it's bad for recruitment and retention of talented hackers, who are the lifeblood of Zuckerberg's creation.
8. Invaders such as purple-flowered Asian melastome and strawberry guava threaten delicate Hawaiian natives such as thornless roses and tree ferns.
9. Some banks also have a hit list of people whom they threaten to sue for damages.
10. Either food scarcity or excessive hunting can threaten a population of animals.
11. This gives us an unique perspective on what machines can do, what they can't do and what jobs they might automate or threaten.
12. They threatened to cancel the whole project at a stroke.
13. This gives us a unique perspective on what machines can do, what they can't do and what jobs they might automate or threaten.
14. Do not nag, scold, threaten or preach, because these do not work!
15. They have in common only one thing that they tend to annoy or threaten those who regard themselves as more enlightened expenses.
16. At the same time, however, some of these applications threaten to unleash forces over which we have no control.
17. The teacher threatened to confiscate their phones if they kept using them in class.
18. Even after their divorce he continued to stalk and threaten her.
19. Workers have threatened to withdraw their labour.
20. They threatened to sue if the work was not completed.
21. If you go into a shark's territory and threaten it, it might try to bite you.
22. A laser thunder factory could shake the moisture out of clouds, perhaps preventing the formation of the giant hailstones that threaten crops.
23. Most of them do not directly threaten peace and security and rarely contribute to conflict.
24. Humans also threaten carnivorous plants in other ways.
25. Campaigners have won a reprieve for the hospital threatened with closure.
26. She blackmailed him for years by threatening to tell the newspapers about their affair.
27. Individually engineering and the liberal arts shape a person in very different ways; together they threaten to confuse.
28. It's neither aliens nor a rare disease that will threaten the human race in the future, but climate change.
29. They threaten to cancel the whole project at a stroke.
30. He was threatened with dismissal if he continued to turn up late for work.
31. You could threaten to replace all their tunes with white noise.
32. He threatened to fire me, as if I cared!
33. They can threaten some native species or even destroy and replace others.
34. She threatened to turn him in to the police.
35. On Halloween, children would usually wear strange costumes, knock on their neighbours' doors and threaten them with "trick or treat".
36. The decline of Europe's forests over the last decade and a half has led to an increasing awareness and understanding of the serious imbalances which threaten them.
37. Terrorist attacks were threatening to destabilize the government.
38. Dad threatened to stop £ 1 a week from our pocket money if we didn't clean our rooms.
39. Hundreds of lives were threatened when the building collapsed.
40. The government's political and economic reforms threaten to plunge the country into chaos.
41. Some residents voiced concern that the rice could threaten certain species of rare migratory birds.
42. They have threatened us with legal action.
43. That leaves him free to stomp out at any time, or threaten another test, to get more of his way.
44. We are reproducing ourselves at such a rate that our numbers threaten the ecology of the planet.
45. Their new manifesto hardly threatens to bring the whole edifice of capitalism crashing down.
46. The terrorists are threatening to blow up the plane.
47. The newcomers directly threaten the livelihood of the established workers.
48. Coppicing is sustainable and doesn't threaten the environment.
49. Sometimes a sudden shift in color can be used to startle potential predators or threaten intruders.
50. He had a terrible temper, and once threaten to kill another child.
51. The country has been threatened with complete isolation from the international community unless the atrocities stop.
52. Disaster threatens on every side.
53. The threatened strike has been called off.
54. Jack Frost was threatening to kill the new plants.
55. The clouds threatened rain.
56. The sky was dark and threatening.
57. He threatened to expose the racism that existed within the police force.
58. The disease threatens to wipe out the entire population.
59. People are becoming more sensitized to the dangers threatening the environment.
