BALEFUL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does baleful mean? 

• BALEFUL (adjective)
  The adjective BALEFUL has 2 senses:

1. deadly or sinister

2. threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments

  Familiarity information: BALEFUL used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BALEFUL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deadly or sinister

Synonyms:

baleful; baneful

Context example:

the Florida eagles have a fierce baleful look

Similar:

maleficent (harmful or evil in intent or effect)

Derivation:

balefulness (the quality or nature of being harmful or evil)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments

Synonyms:

baleful; forbidding; menacing; minacious; minatory; ominous; sinister; threatening

Context example:

the situation became ugly

Similar:

alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)

Derivation:

balefulness (the quality or nature of being harmful or evil)

 Context examples 

His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in his grey eyes.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have but an indistinct idea of what happened for some time after this baleful object presented itself to my view.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Once a dark, clumsy tapir stared at us from a gap in the bushes, and then lumbered away through the forest; once, too, the yellow, sinuous form of a great puma whisked amid the brushwood, and its green, baleful eyes glared hatred at us over its tawny shoulder.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They seemed to swarm over the place all at once, till the lamplight, shining on their moving dark bodies and glittering, baleful eyes, made the place look like a bank of earth set with fireflies.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)