From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Ominous \Om"i*nous\, adjective [L. ominosus, fr. omen. See {Omen}.] Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant; portentous; -- formerly used both in a favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter; foreboding or foreshowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous dread.
He had a good ominous name to have made a peace. --Bacon.
In the heathen worship of God, a sacrifice without a heart was accounted ominous. --South. -- {Om"i*nous*ly}, adverb -- {Om"i*nous*ness}, n.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments; "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" [syn: {baleful}, {forbidding}, {menacing}, {minacious}, {minatory}, {sinister}, {threatening}, {ugly}]
2: presaging ill-fortune; "ill omens"; "ill predictions"; "my words with inauspicious thunderings shook heaven"- P.B.Shelley; "a dead and ominous silence prevailed"; "a by-election at a time highly unpropitious for the Government" [syn: {ill}, {inauspicious}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
131 Moby Thesaurus words for "ominous": abusive, admonitory, apocalyptic, augural, bad, badly off, baleful, baneful, black, bludgeoning, blustering, bodeful, boding, browbeating, bulldozing, bullying, cautionary, comminatory, corroding, corrosive, corrupting, corruptive, counterproductive, damaging, dark, deadly, deleterious, denunciatory, depressed, detrimental, dire, direful, disadvantageous, disserviceable, distressing, donsie, doomful, dreary, evil, evil-starred, fatal, fateful, fear-inspiring, forbidding, foreboding, foreshadowing, foretelling, foretokening, fortuneless, funest, gloomy, grim, hapless, harmful, hectoring, hostile, hurtful, ill, ill off, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-omened, ill-starred, imminent, in adverse circumstances, inauspicious, indicative, inhospitable, injurious, intimidating, lethal, lowering, luckless, malefic, maleficent, malevolent, malign, malignant, mantic, meaningful, menacing, minacious, minatory, mischievous, noisome, noxious, of evil portent, oracular, out of luck, pernicious, planet-struck, poisonous, portending, portentous, predictive, prejudicial, premonitory, prognostic, prophetic, sad, scatheful, short of luck, sibyllic, sinister, somber, star-crossed, terroristic, terrorizing, threatening, threatful, toxic, unblessed, underprivileged, unfavorable, unfortunate, unfriendly, unhappy, unlucky, unpromising, unpropitious, unprosperous, unprovidential, untoward, vaticinal, venenate, veneniferous, venenous, venomous, vicious, virulent, warning
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