ILL-OMENED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ill-omened mean? 

• ILL-OMENED (adjective)
  The adjective ILL-OMENED has 1 sense:

1. marked by or promising bad fortune

  Familiarity information: ILL-OMENED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ILL-OMENED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Marked by or promising bad fortune

Synonyms:

doomed; ill-fated; ill-omened; ill-starred; unlucky

Context example:

the unlucky prisoner was again put in irons

Similar:

unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)

 Context examples 

Then we turned our steps towards this ill-omened house in which they had met their strange fate.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

At this minute I see him turn round in the garden, and give us a last look with his ill-omened black eyes, before the door was shut.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

With his mother’s hand in his own, he led us into that ill-omened room where the cards were still heaped upon the sideboard, and the dark shadow lurked in the corner of the ceiling.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And now arose a struggle so fell, so long, so evenly sustained, that even now the memory of it is handed down amongst the Cantabrian mountaineers and the ill-omened knoll is still pointed out by fathers to their children as the Altura de los Inglesos, where the men from across the sea fought the great fight with the knights of the south. The last arrow was quickly shot, nor could the slingers hurl their stones, so close were friend and foe.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)