Portentous

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Portentous \Por*tent"ous\, a. [L. portentosus.]
     1. Of the nature of a portent; containing portents;
        foreshadowing, esp. foreshadowing ill; ominous.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              For, I believe, they are portentous things. --Shak.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              Victories of strange and almost portentous splendor.
                                                    --Macaulay.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Hence: Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; dreadful; as, a
        beast of portentous size. --Roscommon.
        [1913 Webster] -- {Por*tent"ous*ly}, adv. --
        {Por*tent"ous*ness}, n.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  portentous
       adj 1: of momentous or ominous significance; "such a
              portentous...monster raised all my curiosity"- Herman
              Melville; "a prodigious vision" [syn: {prodigious}]
       2: of ominous significance [syn: {fateful}, {foreboding(a)}]
       3: puffed up with vanity; "a grandiloquent and boastful
          manner"; "overblown oratory"; "a pompous speech";
          "pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey"-
          Newsweek [syn: {grandiloquent}, {overblown}, {pompous}, {pontifical}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  86 Moby Thesaurus words for "portentous":
     alarming, amazing, apocalyptic, astonishing, astounding,
     awe-inspiring, awesome, bad, baleful, baneful, black, bodeful,
     boding, dark, dire, doomful, dreary, earnest, evil, evil-starred,
     exceptional, extraordinary, fabulous, fantastic, fatal, fateful,
     foreboding, forerunning, forewarning, formidable, gloomy, grave,
     heavy, ill, ill-boding, ill-fated, ill-omened, ill-starred,
     imposing, inauspicious, indescribable, ineffable, legendary,
     lowering, marvelous, menacing, mind-boggling, miraculous,
     momentous, mythical, noteworthy, of evil portent, ominous,
     phenomenal, portending, precautional, precautionary, precursive,
     precursory, premonitory, prodigious, prodromal, prodromic,
     remarkable, serious, sinister, sober, solemn, somber, star-crossed,
     stupefying, stupendous, threatening, unexampled, unfavorable,
     unfortunate, unlucky, unparalleled, unprecedented, unpromising,
     unpropitious, unspeakable, untoward, weighty, wonderful,
     wondrous