different between threatening vs spiteful

English

Alternative forms

• threatning (obsolete)

Etymology

From threaten +? -ing.

Pronunciation

• enPR: thr?t??n??, IPA^(key): /????t.n?.??/
• Hyphenation: threat?en?ing

Verb

threatening

1. present participle of threaten

Adjective

threatening (comparative more threatening, superlative most threatening)

1. Presenting a threat; menacing; frightening.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

threatening (countable and uncountable, plural threatenings)

1. An act of threatening; a threat.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts IV:

     And nowe lorde beholde their threatenynges, and graunte unto thy servauntes wyth all confydence to speake thy worde.

   • 1859-1895, Charles Dickens, All the Year Round

     The butcher's boy — a fierce and beefy youth, who openly defied the dog, and waved him off with hurlings of his basket and threatenings of his feet, accompanied by growls of "Git out, yer beast!" — now entered silently […]

English

Alternative forms

• spightful (obsolete)
• spightfull (obsolete)
• spitefull (archaic)

Etymology

From Middle English spytefulle, equivalent to spite +? -ful.

Adjective

spiteful (comparative spitefuller, superlative spitefullest)

1. Filled with, or showing, spite; having a desire to annoy or harm.

   Synonyms: malignant, malicious

Translations

Further reading

• spiteful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• spiteful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.