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Threat   Listen
noun
Threat  n.  The expression of an intention to inflict evil or injury on another; the declaration of an evil, loss, or pain to come; menace; threatening; denunciation. "There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Threat" Quotes from Famous Books



... momentarily revealed nether world. Some thousands of needy ineffectual men had been raked together to trail their spiritless misery through the West Eire with an appeal that was also in its way a weak and insubstantial threat: "It is Work ...
— Tono Bungay • H. G. Wells

... mean very little to the girl who has never been so unfortunate as to know their fullest meaning, but Tessie knew not the lines, it was their threat she felt, their dark story ...
— The Girl Scout Pioneers - or Winning the First B. C. • Lillian C Garis

... It isn't impossible. But I'll tell you what is impossible. This—for me to go on loving you and despising you.... I came here today to make one last appeal to you. I don't mean it as a threat. But I am going away tonight for ever—with you, or without you. ...
— King Arthur's Socks and Other Village Plays • Floyd Dell

... is a deep one. It is a wrong, and therefore unjust, when it is effected through undue influence that either annuls consent, or wrings it from the victim by cajolery, threat, or false promise. It becomes immeasurably aggravated when the victim is abandoned to bear alone the shame and ...
— Explanation of Catholic Morals - A Concise, Reasoned, and Popular Exposition of Catholic Morals • John H. Stapleton

... given Cyriax cause for the threat. All day and during the night she had been busy with the unfortunate mother and her twins, and therefore had frequently neglected to fill his brandy bottle. But this could not be helped, and she ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my where-about, And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives; Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. [A bell rings.] Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell, That summons thee to ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... soon astride the animals' necks, and prodded them with the persuasive iron hooks. Not an elephant would exert itself to draw. In vain the drivers, with relentless cruelty, drove the iron points deep into the poor brutes' necks and heads, and used every threat of their vocabulary; the only response was a kind of marking time on the part of the elephants, which simply moved their legs mechanically up and down, and swung their trunks to and fro; but none would pull or exert the slightest power, neither ...
— Short Stories and Selections for Use in the Secondary Schools • Emilie Kip Baker

... friends parted. Robin Oig drew out, in silence, a piece of money, threw it on the table, and then left the alehouse. But turning at the door, he shook his hand at Wakefield, pointing with his forefinger upwards, in a manner which might imply either a threat or a caution. He then disappeared in ...
— Chronicles of the Canongate • Sir Walter Scott

... longer bade their followers to become Christians. On the contrary, they ordered them to renounce the new faith, under threat of punishment. Their harshness resulted in rebellion, so new a thing among the peasantry of Japan that the authorities felt sure that they had been secretly instigated to it by the missionaries. The wrath of the shogun aroused, he sent soldiers ...
— Historic Tales, Vol. 12 (of 15) - The Romance of Reality • Charles Morris

... growing wonder both at him and at herself. Her own words had been little more than a petulant outburst. Of actually finding a way to elude her uncle's wishes she had no thought—unless it lay in carrying out that threat of hers to take the veil. Now, however, that Gonzaga spoke so bravely of doing what man could do to help her to evade that marriage, the thought of active resistance took an ...
— Love-at-Arms • Raphael Sabatini

... to effect this internal new obedience in the converted. The first and chief cause is God Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.... The second is God's Word.... The third is man's intellect, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, which ponders and understands God's command [threat and promise], and our new and regenerate will, which is governed by the Holy Spirit, and now desires with a glad and willing heart (herzlich gern und willig), though in great weakness, to submit to, and obey, the Word and ...
— Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church • Friedrich Bente

... shall attend you Through all the watry plains, Where Neptune reigns; Venus ready to defend you, And her nymphs to ease your pains, No storm shall offend you, Passing the main; Nor billow threat in vain So sacred a train, 'Till the gods, that defend you, Restore ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) - The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian • John Dryden

... the cabin for a long ten minutes, and Uncle Remus, looking up, saw a threat of sleep in the little boy's eyes. Whereupon he plunged headlong into a story without ...
— Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit • Joel Chandler Harris

... taken the message myself had need been," said Aunt Deborah; "but thee sees that he already knew of their wicked plan. He did but smile at such a threat." ...
— A Little Maid of Old Philadelphia • Alice Turner Curtis

... postponed and weakened the main attack. This war should be fought in France. If it is, Germany will be utterly defeated; she cannot long survive such another failure as Verdun, or even should she eventually occupy Verdun could she survive such a victory. When she no longer is a military threat all she possessed before the war, and whatever territory she has taken since she began the war, will automatically revert to the Allies. It then will be time enough to restore to Belgium, Serbia, Poland, and other rightful owners the possessions of which Germany ...
— With the French in France and Salonika • Richard Harding Davis

... play. At first, when she heard him speak of writing, and inquire after the dumplings, she did not think it necessary to get up, but when he flung the tea-cup on the floor, and got into a temper, she promptly jumped up and tried to appease him, and to prevent him by coaxing from carrying out his threat. ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... her father, accompanied by the Duke de Luovo; and as her spirits died away at the sight, the marquis called furiously to the Abate to deliver her instantly into his hands, threatening, if she was detained, to force the gates of the monastery. At this threat the countenance of the Abate grew dark: and leading Julia forcibly to the window, from which she had shrunk back, 'Impious menacer!' said he, 'eternal vengeance be upon thee! From this moment we expel thee from all the rights and communities of our church. Arrogant and daring ...
— A Sicilian Romance • Ann Radcliffe

... Stephen to order her not to threaten him again, to tell her that he was sick of melodrama, sick to the soul; but he kept silence. She was a passionate woman, and perhaps in a moment of madness she might carry out her threat. He had done a great deal to save her life—or, as he thought, to save it. After going so far he must not fail now in forbearance. And worse than having to live with beautiful, dramatic Margot, would it be to live without her if she killed ...
— The Golden Silence • C. N. Williamson and A. M. Williamson

... forgot all respect for persons when he got on this theme; this was his dream, this was the proletariat expropriating the expropriators, and he told about it with shining eyes. In time past the young lord of Leesville would have answered him with insolent serenity, perhaps with a threat of machine-guns; but now he said hesitatingly that it was a large programme, and he feared it couldn't ...
— Jimmie Higgins • Upton Sinclair

... the Yankees for hell;" and Major Turner very grimly informed them that if any further attempt at escape were made, or efforts for their rescue, the prison would be blown to atoms! It is not surprising that at such a time, and under the circumstances, the prisoners looked upon this threat as meant in sober reality; but in all probability (or at least let us hope), it was used simply as a means of discouraging attempts upon the part of the incarcerated men, to regain their liberty by their own efforts or that ...
— Sword and Pen - Ventures and Adventures of Willard Glazier • John Algernon Owens

... Lord, Leslie!" cried Douglas, "I have it! He has made good his threat. He has frozen her soul! What you want to do is to go to ...
— Michael O'Halloran • Gene Stratton-Porter

... fear and hope—fear of the power of France, and hope to obtain favours from her."[1] At Berlin, Frederick William clung nervously to neutrality, even though the French occupation of Hanover was a threat to Prussia's influence in North Germany. The Czar Alexander was, at present, wrapt up in home affairs; and the only monarch who as yet ventured to show his dislike of the First Consul was the King of Sweden. In the autumn of 1803 Gustavus IV. defiantly refused Napoleon's proposals for a Franco-Swedish ...
— The Life of Napoleon I (Volumes, 1 and 2) • John Holland Rose

... then?" I asked with a very tremulous voice. Through all this sneering talk, I was made to feel the threat of death that overhung me, and my cheeks burned and my heart beat painfully in ...
— Treasure Island • Robert Louis Stevenson

... of wives, as proposed by a weekly paper, did not materialise. The husbands' threat to employ black-legs (alleged silk) ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 156, Apr 2, 1919 • Various

... house of Mr. Marsden: their conduct was civil to each other; but Shongi told him that when again in New Zealand he would never cease to carry war into his country. The challenge was accepted; and Shongi on his return fulfilled the threat to the utmost letter. The tribe on the Thames River was utterly overthrown, and the chief to whom the challenge had been given was himself killed. Shongi, although harbouring such deep feelings of hatred and revenge, is described as ...
— A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World - The Voyage Of The Beagle • Charles Darwin

... from "her friend," as Edmund called Miss Crawford, was a formidable threat to Fanny, and she lived in continual terror of it. As a sister, so partial and so angry, and so little scrupulous of what she said, and in another light so triumphant and secure, she was in every way an object of painful alarm. Her displeasure, her penetration, ...
— Persuasion • Jane Austen

... it. And as for the rest, Mr. Hobbes ascribes it to the forms of expression used among men. But one will answer him that it would be to God's discredit that his revealed will [402] should be opposed to his real will: that what he bade Jonah say to the Ninevites was rather a threat than a prediction, and that thus the condition of impenitence was implied therein; moreover the Ninevites took it in this sense. One will say also, that it is quite true that God in commanding Abraham to sacrifice his son willed obedience, but did not will action, which he prevented after having ...
— Theodicy - Essays on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil • G. W. Leibniz

... Charleston received Lincoln's threat and gave it back. Many were glad that he had made the issue. The enthusiasm swelled yet further, when they heard that the Confederate envoys at Washington, treating for a peaceful separation, had left the capital at once when Lincoln had sent his ...
— The Guns of Bull Run - A Story of the Civil War's Eve • Joseph A. Altsheler

... It was no idle threat of Vee's. A few nights later we got under way right after dinner and drove over there. I expect we were about the first outsiders to push the bell button since they moved in. But we'd no sooner rung than Vee ...
— Torchy As A Pa • Sewell Ford

... hard," continued Smallbones, unmindful of the threat "that that ere beast is to eat my allowance, and be allowed to half eat ...
— Snarley-yow - or The Dog Fiend • Frederick Marryat

... the piece of paper, and feeling very serious, since he knew that it contained a threat. But as soon as he grasped its contents—looking at them as a well-educated lad for his days, fresh from the big town grammar-school—he slapped his thigh with one hand, and burst into a roar of laughter, while his father looked ...
— Dick o' the Fens - A Tale of the Great East Swamp • George Manville Fenn

... growing concern, these ten years past, is with the native people of Alaska, a gentle and kindly race, now threatened with a wanton and senseless extermination, and sadly in need of generous champions if that threat is to ...
— The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley) - A Narrative of the First Complete Ascent of the Highest - Peak in North America • Hudson Stuck

... and the looting of a German vessel along the Kru Coast and personal indignities inflicted by the natives upon the shipwrecked Germans, led to the bombardment of Nana Kru by a German warship and the presentation at Monrovia of a claim for damages, payment of which was forced by the threat of the bombardment of the capital. To the Liberian people the outlook was seldom darker than in this period of calamities. President Gardiner, very ill, resigned office in January of his last year of service, being succeeded by the vice-president, Alfred F. ...
— A Social History of the American Negro • Benjamin Brawley

... name a sudden shade came over Susan's countenance. Changing colour, and slightly trembling, she turned away from the child, who, noticing the effect of her threat, could not repress her triumph. But again ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth

... that heard him can forget The deep impression of that awful threat, "I quit your house!!"—midst all that histories tell, I know but one event ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al

... lesson from the insolent indifference of this Administration, when an argument or a request is to be set aside; it is exactly in proportion to the pliancy they display when confronted with demands enforced by a substantial threat. Lord Lyons' reputation for courtesy and kindness of heart stands too high to need any testimony of mine; but I cannot forbear here expressing my sense of his good offices, and I am not the ...
— Border and Bastille • George A. Lawrence

... what he carried away with him that morning to the mill. He was not greatly disturbed by her threat to keep her hands off. He knew quite well, indeed, that the afternoon would find her, with Rodney Page, picking her way in her high-heeled shoes over the waste that was some day to bloom, not like the rose of his desire but according to the formal and rigid blueprint which ...
— Dangerous Days • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... Ogilvy replied valiantly from a perfectly safe distance, vowing that he meant to marry her some day in spite of herself and threatening to go up and tell her so to her face, until she became bored to death waiting for him to fulfil this threat. ...
— The Common Law • Robert W. Chambers

... was his firm resolve to give up his long crusade against Ibsen, emigrate to Norway, and change his name to that of John Gabriel Borkman. A prolonged sojourn in Poppyland, however, resulted in the withdrawal of this dreadful threat, and, some few weeks after the extinction of the Wenuses, his reconciliation with the dramatic profession was celebrated at a public meeting, where, after embracing all the actor-managers in turn, he was presented by them ...
— The War of the Wenuses • C. L. Graves and E. V. Lucas

... this threat was the heavy boom of the cannon as Fort William Henry discharged its ...
— French and English - A Story of the Struggle in America • Evelyn Everett-Green

... weaken and discredit the Union—nominated an able ticket. The latter party were soon conscious of defeat, and began to hint mysteriously at a power stronger than the ballot-box, that would be invoked in defence of 'Southern rights.' To many, indeed to most persons, this seemed an idle threat. Not so to Frank Blair. He had imbibed from Benton the invincible faith of the latter in the settled purpose of the 'nullifiers' to subvert and destroy the government. And in a private caucus of the leaders of the Union party, on an ever-memorable evening in the month of January, ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... for you remember I took over that mortgage on Yarleys, and I'll do it if necessary. Practically our friend has not a shilling that he can call his own. Therefore, Haswell, unless you play me false, which I don't think you will, for I can be a nasty enemy," he added with a threat in his voice, "Alan Vernon hasn't much chance ...
— The Yellow God - An Idol of Africa • H. Rider Haggard

... which they lead?—What holds more antipathy to pleasure than pain? The mind given up to self-indulgence revolts at suffering, and throws it from it as an unaccountable anomaly, as a piece of injustice when it comes. Much less will it acknowledge any affinity with or subjection to it as a mere threat. If the prediction does not immediately come true, we laugh at the prophet of ill: if it is verified, we hate our adviser proportionably, hug our vices the closer, and hold them dearer and more precious the more they cost ...
— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt

... this threat was carried out by the murder of Baron Owen in 1555, when he was passing through the thick woods of Mawddwy on his way to Montgomeryshire Assizes, at a place called to this day Llidiart y Barwn, the Baron's Gate, from the deed. Tradition further ...
— Welsh Folk-Lore - a Collection of the Folk-Tales and Legends of North Wales • Elias Owen

... and want of initiative. He would have flogged the whole lot soundly, but he wanted them fresh for the morrow's work. Cutting down their rations would but weaken them, and as for threatening to dock their pay, such a threat has no effect on ...
— The Pools of Silence • H. de Vere Stacpoole

... father was like Persey's shield, to make the poore maid stone, now nurse doth threat Vnlesse she will in gentle manner yeeld, she would to morrow shew how in a heat She would haue made away her desperate life, and she must tell the man that forc'd that strife within her brest through feare she thus did frame and made her toung the ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale

... as if about immediately to put his threat into execution, but the girl threw her arms around him and drew ...
— The Knight of the Golden Melice - A Historical Romance • John Turvill Adams

... found. I have no confidence in lambs that have been so long in the company of wolves. If the Colonel be living, so may you; but if I find it otherwise, then your prospects—Ho, there!" cried the Lieutenant, without finishing the threat, "take these two men to the guard-house, and keep them there, till I order them to be ...
— The Tiger Hunter • Mayne Reid

... and setting his feet upon his body, told him that, "since he did not know how to sit quiet at a play, he would have the honour of teaching him to lie; and that if he offered to stir, he would trample him to pieces;" a threat which was very evident he could find ...
— The History of Sandford and Merton • Thomas Day

... man, "but mark you keep your promise. Know that 'tis an offence against the law to incite a slave to revolt. I tell you this, not as a threat, for I bear you no ill will, but as a warning to save you from consequences which I may be ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett

... character of the conflict between the slave and the free populations, and the sure tendency of that conflict to a dissolution of the Union. Few men at that day read the future so clearly. While dissolution was generally regarded as a threat not really intended to be carried out, and compromises were supposed to be amply sufficient to control the successive emergencies, the underlying moral force of the anti-slavery movement acting against the encroaching necessities of the slave-holding communities constituted an ...
— John Quincy Adams - American Statesmen Series • John. T. Morse

... do but little," came with a shrug of the shoulders. "We are not armed, and if we help the Americanos, Aguinaldo says he will behead all the Spanish prisoners he is holding." Such a threat was actually made, but it is doubtful if the Filipinos would have been base enough ...
— The Campaign of the Jungle - or, Under Lawton through Luzon • Edward Stratemeyer

... healed. Later in the year, when the battle of Bunker's Hill had been fought, when our forts on Lake Champlain had been taken from us, and when Montgomery and Arnold were pressing on our possessions in Canada, Lord Dunmore carried his threat into execution. Having established his headquarters at Norfolk, he proclaimed freedom to all the slaves who would repair to his standard and bear arms for the King. The summons was readily obeyed by the most of the negroes ...
— The Black Phalanx - African American soldiers in the War of Independence, the - War of 1812, and the Civil War • Joseph T. Wilson

... been fighting fury that had impelled her to hurry; now it was fear that drove her homeward where Lone was, and Swan, and that stolid, faithful Jim. She felt that Senator Warfield would never dare to carry out his covert threat, once she reached home. Nevertheless, the threat haunted her, made her glance ...
— The Quirt • B.M. Bower

... civilised nations of the world." It need not be said that any attempt to apply this stigma in practice would be extremely difficult to carry out, would involve all kinds of difficulties and complications in trade and in finance, and that the threat of it is more likely than anything else to stiffen the resistance of the Germans and to force them to rely on their militarist leaders as their only hope of salvation. However, the Committee points out that recent legislation shows a desire to ascertain and record the ...
— War-Time Financial Problems • Hartley Withers

... faith. (See the reports of Brenz, Melanchthon, and the delegates from Nuernberg, C. R. 2, 245. 250. 253.) Thus the Emperor, who had promised to have the deliberations carried on in love and kindness, demanded blind submission, and closed his demand with a threat. His manifesto was Protestant; his actions remained Papistical. In the estimation of the Romanists, the Emperor, by condescending to an extended reply to the Lutheran Confession, had done more than his duty, and ...
— Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church • Friedrich Bente

... war to keep frae being destroyed. But noo we've a chance to get something positive—to mak' something profitable and worth while oot of pulling together. Before it was just a negative thing that made us do it. It was fear, in a way. It was the threat that the Hun made against all we held most ...
— Between You and Me • Sir Harry Lauder

... With this terrific threat the boy strode away, leaving her to watch the storm alone in the lee of the sandbank. Aurora knew that he really meant to go this time, and at first she was rather glad of it, since he was in such a very bad temper. She felt that he had insulted her, ...
— Whosoever Shall Offend • F. Marion Crawford

... threat the tramp knew would be carried out, and he made no further attempt to escape. The two lads took off his ragged coat, and made it fast about the fellow's arms, tying them behind him. Then, walking on either side, while Tom flashed the electric ...
— Tom Fairfield's Pluck and Luck • Allen Chapman

... an orderly detailed, word brought you in no time." The girl paid not the slightest heed to his proposal. From the street came a hoarse drunken shouting, a small inflamed rabble streamed by. It wouldn't be safe to leave Rosemary Roselle alone here with Indy. He recalled the threat of the black pomposity he had driven from the house—it was possible that there were others, banded, and that they would return. It was clear to him that he must stay until its head reappeared, order had been reestablished—or, ...
— The Happy End • Joseph Hergesheimer

... fierce souldiers to the spoyle: See how the night Ulysses-like comes forth, And intercepts the day as Dolon erst: Ay me! the Starres supprisde like Rhesus Steedes, Are drawne by darknes forth Astraeus tents. What shall I doe to saue thee my sweet boy? When as the waues doe threat our Chrystall world, And Proteus raising hils of flouds on high, Entends ere long to sport him in the skie. False Iupiter, rewardst thou vertue so? What? is not pietie exempt from woe? Then dye AEneas in thine innocence, Since that ...
— The Tragedy of Dido Queene of Carthage • Christopher Marlowe

... the Court of Assizes. Durut took oath to Prudence, before the same tribunal, that, once free, he would kill her. However, he was executed at the bagne of Toulon four years later (1829). Jacques Collin, alias Vautrin, to obtain Prudence's affections, boasted of having freed her from Durut, whose threat held her in perpetual terror. ...
— Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z • Anatole Cerfberr and Jules Franois Christophe

... forgiven—and that he considered that he had a right to make an example of them. It is not unlikely that he might, after all, have intended to forgive them, and have given the Queen the grace of obtaining their pardon, so as to excuse himself from the fulfillment of some over-hasty threat. But, however this may have been, nothing can lessen the glory of the six grave and patient men who went forth, by their own free will, to meet what might be a cruel and disgraceful death, in order to obtain the ...
— A Book of Golden Deeds • Charlotte M. Yonge

... really worth about one franc, seven centimes, and can be bought at that rate in Holland or Switzerland, where people are glad enough to get rid of their German money. Any shop refusing to accept German paper money at the stipulated rate is to be immediately closed, according to the Governor's threat. ...
— A Journal From Our Legation in Belgium • Hugh Gibson

... threat, menace call, summon talk, commune cleanse, purify short, terse short, concise better, ameliorate lie, recline new, novel straight, parallel lawful, legitimate law, litigation law, jurisprudence flash, coruscate late, tardy watch, chronometer foretell, prognosticate ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor

... parties shall undertake to respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all States members of the League. In case of any such aggression or in case of any threat or danger of such aggression the Executive Council shall advise upon the means by which the obligation ...
— World's War Events, Volume III • Various

... were the Rattleburghers; but the remark of "Old Charley" brought them at once to a consideration of this point, and thus gave them to see the possibility of the threats having been nothing more than a threat. And straightway hereupon, arose the natural question of cui bono?—a question that tended even more than the waistcoat to fasten the terrible crime upon the young man. And here, lest I may be misunderstood, permit me to digress for one moment merely to observe that the ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 5 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe

... distract the attention of the Union generals, to induce them to abandon their efforts or diminish the forces at the front, no means were so ready nor so sure as an attack upon their communications, or a threat directed against their base. To make these insecure, is like mining the foundations of a building. Here the navy removed every substantial cause of anxiety by its firm support, and by the rapidity with ...
— Admiral Farragut • A. T. Mahan

... long turmoil and misery will remain in these tropical regions, for Catholicism has sworn by all of her imaginary saints that Protestantism shall never rule these countries, and so far she has carried out her threat truly and well, as Protestantism to-day has no more control over the inhabitants of these islands than she did before the damnable creed of the Pope was molested by the appearance of ...
— Thirty Years In Hell - Or, From Darkness to Light • Bernard Fresenborg

... without the slightest intention of carrying out the promised reforms. Indeed, he knows that he could not do it even if he wanted to. And the Powers know it too, just as well as they know they would not carry out their threat ...
— The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 20, March 25, 1897 - A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls • Various

... At this threat the soldiers dropped their swords and axes, and all fell upon their knees, trembling visibly and imploring their cruel master not to change ...
— The Enchanted Island of Yew • L. Frank Baum

... that he would have laughed boisterously, and told her that he didn't want the children molly-coddled. Time enough for that by and by when they grew up. And the twins probably knew this too, and were not unduly alarmed at the implied threat. But there was a quality in their mother's displeasure, rare as it was, which made them apprehensive when one of their periodical outbursts had come to light. They were not old enough to perceive that it was not aroused by such feats as ...
— The Squire's Daughter - Being the First Book in the Chronicles of the Clintons • Archibald Marshall

... had been delivered in the lowest tone possible, yet each syllable was as distinctly enunciated as if it had been shouted. The doctor knew Marshall. He chose that idle threat of "accessory" as the safest means to ...
— Reels and Spindles - A Story of Mill Life • Evelyn Raymond

... platform no reference was to be made to the idealistic Declaration of Independence, so popular in 1856; but the resolute threat of a bolt, by Joshua R. Giddings, caused a reconsideration and the adoption of the brief reference which one reads in the historic document. All raids into States or Territories were duly denounced, and slavery itself was ...
— Expansion and Conflict • William E. Dodd

... as bitterly. They had each learned to despise the other, and not to sneer was impossible. Miss Altifiorla had come to tell of her triumph, and to sneer in return. But it mattered nothing. What did matter was whether that threat should come true. Should she always be left living at Exeter with her mother? Then she dreamed her dream again, that he had come back to her, and was sitting by her bedside with his hand in hers and whispering sweet words to her, while a baby ...
— Kept in the Dark • Anthony Trollope

... thou didst threat me with the cord; Come forth and brave my sword, if you dare!" But he met with no reply, and never could descry The glitter of his ...
— The Bon Gaultier Ballads • William Edmonstoune Aytoun

... must come when this kind of threat and defiance will have to be forcibly stopped, and when the unreasonable toleration of it will lead to a sacrifice of life among the comparatively innocent lookers-on that might have been avoided but for a false confidence ...
— The Letters of Charles Dickens - Vol. 3 (of 3), 1836-1870 • Charles Dickens

... the sheriff, who was a little way on before us, but who straightway turned him about, and when he had heard the cause, called after the fellows that he would hang them all upon the first tree, and feed his falcons with their flesh, if they did not return forthwith. This threat had its effect; and when they came back he gave each of them about half-a-dozen strokes with his riding-whip, whereupon they tarried in their places, but as far off from the cart as they could ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold

... opposition are wonderful. There are men who rise refreshed on hearing of a threat,—men to whom a crisis which intimidates and paralyzes the majority—demanding, not the faculties of prudence and thrift, but comprehension, immovableness, the readiness of sacrifice—comes graceful and beloved ...
— Pearls of Thought • Maturin M. Ballou

... the proud tyrant's fiercest threat, Nor storms, that from their dark retreat The lawless surges wake; Not Jove's dread bolt, that shakes the pole, The firmer purpose of his soul With all its ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part F. - From Charles II. to James II. • David Hume

... he screamed. "You're a Welsh liar, and I'll kill you for this!" The threat was heard by the council and the citizens. But the man seemed so terrible that no one ...
— The Iron Puddler • James J. Davis

... was under threat of excommunication, which made resistance a duty from the side of the ...
— A Golden Book of Venice • Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull

... all he knew; but still I went home very frightened, though I wouldn't let him come with me. I did not quite believe Dick Stanton would be quite so mean as to carry out his threat and tell my father, and if he did not, I was glad, now that it was all over, that he should understand how unwelcome were his attentions ...
— The Moving Finger • Mary Gaunt

... to the taste! how it bites back again! and is there any other sound like the snap and crackle with which it salutes the ear on being plucked from the stems? It is a threat to one sense that the other is soon to verify. It snaps to the ear as it smacks to the tongue. All other berries are tame ...
— Locusts and Wild Honey • John Burroughs

... believing for a moment that she really intended to carry out her threat. The bell rang, Miss Rowe entered, and lessons began before they had time to say anything more about it. Euclid was not a favourite subject with the Upper Fourth. It was considered dry, and the half-hour devoted to it was regarded as more ...
— The Nicest Girl in the School - A Story of School Life • Angela Brazil

... Milan, Parma, Bologna, Cremona, the Marquis of Montferrat, the barons of Rome, all were won by his lavish pay. The alliance of Sicily was established by the betrothal of his daughter with its king. The states of the Pope were being gradually hemmed in between Henry's allies to north and south. The threat of an imperial alliance was added to hold his enemies in awe. In the spring of 1168 his eldest daughter was married to the Emperor's cousin, Henry the Lion, the national hero of Germany, second only to Barbarossa in power, Duke of Bavaria, Duke of Saxony, Lord of Brunswick, and of vast ...
— Henry the Second • Mrs. J. R. Green

... Lord his God he pray'd, and said, O Lord, I pray thee, was not I afraid Of this, when I was yet at home? Therefore I unto Tarshish took my flight before: For that thou art a gracious God I know, Of tender mercy, and to anger slow, Of great compassion, and dost oft recall The evil thou dost threat mankind withal. Now therefore, Lord, I earnestly do pray That thou would'st please to take my life away, For I had better die than live. Dost thou Do well, said God, to be so angry now? So then out of the city Jonah went, And on the east side of it made a tent,[8] ...
— The Works of John Bunyan • John Bunyan

... of the path. "Kelso again. When Tyler didn't take the first warning, his trawler was wrecked and he was told that next time something would happen to his family. That's the only threat they could make stick with a man like Tyler. If they threatened him, he'd laugh at them. But if they threatened his wife and little ...
— Smugglers' Reef • John Blaine

... honour done him by this visit. But if not, king and people would be very severely punished for the insult offered to their potent visitors, "and," continued the professor, "in order that Lualamba might see for himself that, in making this threat, they were indulging in no mere empty boast, he would give the chief and his followers a single ...
— The Log of the Flying Fish - A Story of Aerial and Submarine Peril and Adventure • Harry Collingwood

... me, thou Queen of Elfland, Vain, vain are threat and spell; For naught can sunder two true hearts That love each ...
— The Feast at Solhoug • Henrik Ibsen

... is simply a threat to punish the States, by reducing their representation on the floor of Congress, should they disfranchise any class of male citizens, and does not allow of the inference that the States may disfranchise from any, or all other causes; nor in anywise weaken or invalidate the universal guarantee ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume II • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage

... would run out from his hiding-place and look about on every side to be sure that they really were not on deck, and would again come bounding aft as joyous as before. I could not help fancying sometimes that he must have understood the threat Mr Grimes uttered against him the first day he came on board. At all events, he evidently mistrusted the first mate's tone of voice, as he did the ...
— My First Voyage to Southern Seas • W.H.G. Kingston

... of the shot had gone in, and he was not seriously injured, but he vowed that it was all done on purpose, and that he was "going straight home and tell Marster," a threat he was only prevented from executing by us all promising him the gold dollars which we should find in the toes of our ...
— The Long Hillside - A Christmas Hare-Hunt In Old Virginia - 1908 • Thomas Nelson Page

... to boast that if ever he reached Rome he would hang the Pope. He never did reach it, having been carried off by a fit of apoplexy while striving to quell a mutiny among his troops shortly after leaving Bologna on his southward march. But the threat is sufficiently indicative of the spirit that animated his army, to show that Clement owed his personal safety only to the strength of the castle of St. Angelo, ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various

... pittie, man! that never enters heere, And if it should, Ide threat my craven heart To stab it home for harbouring such a thought. I see no reason whie I should relent; It is a charitable vertuous deede, To end this princkocke[19] ...
— A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV. • Editor: A.H. Bullen

... when his whole life is defined beforehand for him by laws, which he must obey under threat of punishment, though he does not believe in their wisdom or justice, and often clearly perceives their injustice, cruelty, ...
— The Kingdom of God is within you • Leo Tolstoy

... about half of the fine or property taken will go to the informer. But very likely there will be no trial. The victim (either consciously guilty, or innocent but anxious to avoid the risk) will pay a huge blackmail at the first threat of prosecution, and the ...
— A Day In Old Athens • William Stearns Davis

... Carey. Harley P. Hennage was my friend, but not my partner. He did not have five cents invested in my scheme. I never mentioned it to him, and neither did my wife. His threat was a bluff, and where he got his information of my land deal is a mystery, the solution of ...
— The Long Chance • Peter B. Kyne

... rung down, and then, after a short wait, the manager came out and said the show would go on, if the audience would behave. He threatened to have the persons who were using the pea-shooters arrested, and this threat was greeted by hisses ...
— Frank Merriwell's Races • Burt L. Standish

... at rest. When as a youth I landed on thy shore, How little did I think I e'er could be Worthy the honours thou has giv'n to me; And when the coming storm I did deplore, Drove me far from thee by its hostile threat— With feelings which can never be effaced, I learn'd to commune with those writers old Who had the deeds of they great chieftains told; Departed bards in converse sweet I met, I'd seen where they had ...
— Notes & Queries 1850.01.19 • Various

... to this threat only by a look; but such an imperative one that the thrust of a lance would not have been as fearful to the lover. Octave put his poniard in its sheath, ashamed of his emotion in the presence of such calm, and imitated his enemy's ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... This threat had the desired effect. The doctor drew his note-book from his pocket, rapidly wrote a ...
— The Son of Monte-Cristo, Volume II (of 2) • Alexandre Dumas pere

... an expression unwelcome on the drawing-room table. But, briefly, what Mr. Salter had so sworn to do was to twist his wife's nose off with his finger and thumb. And he did not seem unlikely to carry out his threat, as Livermore's tenantry lacked spirit or will to interpose, and did nothing but shriek in panic when feminine, and show discretion when masculine; mostly affecting indifference, and saying they warn't any good, them Salters. The result seemed likely to turn on whether the victim's back hair would ...
— Somehow Good • William de Morgan

... with contempt. "England is selfish, that is all. Do you not suppose I have something to do besides feeding a canary? To read, to study—that is my pleasure. I know your politics here in America. Suppose you invade Texas, as the threat is, with troops of the United States, before Texas is a member of the Union? Does that not mean you are again at war with Mexico? And does that not mean that you are also at war with England? Come, do you not know ...
— 54-40 or Fight • Emerson Hough

... of wind and dust, not a minute too soon. They had barely alighted and surrendered their horses to a friend of Van's when the rain from the hilltops swooped upon the camp in a fury that seemed like an elemental threat to sweep all the place, with its follies, hopes, and woes, its excitements, lawlessness, and struggles, from the face ...
— The Furnace of Gold • Philip Verrill Mighels

... frowned and fumed about for a moment, and Ned was afraid he would carry out his threat of placing the Filipino under arrest. This, he believed, would be about the worst move that could be made. Seeking to conciliate ...
— Boy Scouts in the Philippines - Or, The Key to the Treaty Box • G. Harvey Ralphson

... have crept into the situation. The conversation, never without its emotional tendencies, at once changed its character. Philippa, cold and reserved, with a threat lurking all the time in her tone and manner, became its ...
— The Zeppelin's Passenger • E. Phillips Oppenheim

... At which threat Noel confidingly hooked his arm once more through that of his brother-in-law and begged him in a voice hoarse with laughter to ...
— The Rocks of Valpre • Ethel May Dell

... Utah is made to contribute to the grandeur of the president of the church, and that at his instance any industry, any institution, within the State, could be destroyed except the mining and smelting industry. Even this industry his personal and church organ has attacked with a threat of extermination by the courts, or by additional legislation, if the smelters do not meet the view expressed by ...
— Conditions in Utah - Speech of Hon. Thomas Kearns of Utah, in the Senate of the United States • Thomas Kearns

... you-all as you wish; the more readily because I trusts that as man an' wife you'll prove a mootual restraint one upon the other; an' also for that I deems you both in your single-footed capac'ty as a threat to the commoonity. Fear not; prepare yourse'fs an' I'll bring you together in the happy bonds of matrimony at ...
— Wolfville Nights • Alfred Lewis

... or I will sink you.' I wrote: 'That would be murder, not battle.'—'Call it what you will, I will do it,' he wrote. 'Attempt it, and by the living God, I will run you down, and we will sink together,' I wrote in reply. I knew his threat was vain; for in that heavy sea, rolling his rails under, he did not dare to free his guns, which were already double lashed. They would have carried away their tackles, and gone through the bulwarks overboard. Conscious that he had made empty threats, we said ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 2 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot

... which ought to have come off is forbidden positively, and I doubt not wisely, by medical command, not because I am ill, but because I had formidable threatening of illness, like a black cloud which after all does not come down. The threat consisted in my left hand losing all sense and power. This is now the sixth day. On the third I regained power to button, though clumsily, and to use my fork. Of course I am ordered to use my brain as little as possible, and in future to change ...
— Memoir and Letters of Francis W. Newman • Giberne Sieveking

... and misery had wetted the old ladies' hired pillows, as under the threat of a provincial visitation they had tossed sleepless in similar solicitude, and their wigs, had they not been wigs, would have turned grey of themselves. Their only consolation had been that neither outdid the other, and so long as each saw the other's brown ...
— The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes • Israel Zangwill

... previously been rumoured or suggested by others; and the dreadful doubt—for it was dreadful to Thady—whether there could be any grounds for it: then the recollection of their defenceless state—the certainty that Flannelly would take every legal step against them, and that Keegan's threat, that they should be turned out to wander through the roads, would be realized:—all these things forced themselves on his recollection, and he could not go up to the house. He could not meet his father, and tell him that, between them, ...
— The Macdermots of Ballycloran • Anthony Trollope

... to do? What ghastly irony had prompted Clancy to sort him out for a police spy? If he refused, if he attempted to stall on Clancy, Clancy's threat to stamp him in the eyes of the underworld as a snitch meant ruin and disaster, absolute and final, for "Smarlinghue" would then have to disappear; on the other hand, to be allied with the police increased ...
— The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale • Frank L. Packard

... uttered an exclamation of surprise. The other continued—a threat in every word. He asked for money—much money. Laisangy knew that in his long career he had left many creditors in the ...
— The Son of Monte Cristo • Jules Lermina

... one who should reach the top of the hill without looking behind him. The command and the promise given to every young person who set out to climb that hill, were—do not look behind you, and that treasure shall be yours. But there was a threat added to the command and promise. The threat was, if you look behind, you will be turned into a stone. Many young persons started, to try and gain the prize. But the way to the top of the hill led them through beautiful groves, which covered ...
— The Life of Jesus Christ for the Young • Richard Newton

... though threatened with the pains and penalties of a petition, he was not a little elated by his success. A petition with regard to the Tillietudlem burghs was almost as much a matter of course as a contest; at any rate the threat of a petition was so. Undy, however, had lived through this before, and did not fear but that he might do so again. Threatened folks live long; parliamentary petitions are very costly, and Undy's adversaries were, if possible, ...
— The Three Clerks • Anthony Trollope

... point which was supposed to be part of the groundwork of the new ordering. This from the Conference point of view was a momentous decision, which could be taken only with the consent of the Supreme Council. Even as a mere threat it was worthless if it did not stand for the deliberate will of that body which the President had deemed it superfluous to consult. As it happened, the British authorities were just then organizing a body of gendarmes ...
— The Inside Story Of The Peace Conference • Emile Joseph Dillon

... if he had known that the drawings were all the time behind your book-case, he might have brazened it out, sworn that the drawings had been there all the time, and we could have done nothing with him. We couldn't have sufficiently frightened him by a threat of prosecution for theft, because there the things were in ...
— Martin Hewitt, Investigator • Arthur Morrison

... had been hunted in the past weeks there had been mystery enough, but no immediate peril to face. When I had been up against a real, urgent, physical risk, like Loos, the danger at any rate had been clear. One knew what one was in for. But here was a threat I couldn't put a name to, and it wasn't in the future, but pressing hard ...
— Greenmantle • John Buchan

... these pleasant sallies nearly all had allusion to those tragic nine years of penal servitude through which Davitt has passed. Mr. Dunbar Barton, one of the Orange lawyers, had spoken of himself as likely to spend the remainder of his days in penal servitude. Mr. Davitt put the threat gently aside, with the assurance that the hon. and learned gentleman would probably be one day on the bench, and that he would advise him not to try to reach the bench by the dock. The same gentleman had expressed a doubt whether any constitutional ...
— Sketches In The House (1893) • T. P. O'Connor

... communication concerning four hundred soldiers disabled by sickness, who had been left behind in the hospital at Orizaba under the protection of the treaty of La Soledad. In the wording of this communication the French general saw, or chose to see, a threat to the ...
— Maximilian in Mexico - A Woman's Reminiscences of the French Intervention 1862-1867 • Sara Yorke Stevenson

... solid than brilliant, have been the nation's main dependence. "It's dogged as does it." On many a hard-fought field men of the bull-dog breed have with unflinching tenacity held their own. In times of revolution they have maintained order, and never yielded to a threat. Had they been more sensitive they would have failed. Their foibles have been easily forgiven and their virtues have been ...
— Humanly Speaking • Samuel McChord Crothers

... and is, by the force of these illustrations, a good lesson in practical ethics. The appeal of the second is to that inherent ideal of disinterested heroism which is so strong in children. The setting of the story amidst the ever-present threat of the sea affords a good chance for the teacher to do effective work in emphasizing the geographical background. This should be done, however, not as geography merely, but with the attention on the human ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry

... the first move was to be the escape of the Toulon fleet; the second, the threat against the West Indies. Its execution was entrusted to Villeneuve, because Napoleon, ever since the escape of his squadron from the disaster in Aboukir Bay, had regarded him as "a lucky man," and luck and chance must play a great part in such ...
— Famous Sea Fights - From Salamis to Tsu-Shima • John Richard Hale

... February and March 1795 to frame one more plan of co-operation with the Court of Berlin, which had so cynically deceived him. To this proposal Grenville offered unflinching opposition, coupled with a conditional threat to resign. Pitt persuaded him to defer action until the troubles in Ireland were less acute. But the King finally agreed with Pitt, and Grenville was on the point of retiring when news arrived of the defection of Prussia.[361] For some time she had been ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose

... anxiously. Would Percy's threat amount to anything? It would be a real calamity to lose his situation on ...
— The Young Bridge-Tender - or, Ralph Nelson's Upward Struggle • Arthur M. Winfield

... probably the handsomest girl in St. Ellis City, in a suburb of which she and her aunt lived. She was certainly one of the most popular girls, in spite of the overshadowing threat of an aunt whom everybody disliked and whom most people feared. Her disposition was one of serene gentleness, yet as fearless and open as her beautiful eyes suggested. She was of a strongly independent spirit too, but, ...
— The Golden Woman - A Story of the Montana Hills • Ridgwell Cullum

... among the hemlocks, trailing his old gun, I knew that he understood the threat. To make the matter sure I drove the deer out of the pond that night, giving them the first of a series of rude lessons in caution, until the falling leaves should make them wild enough to take ...
— Secret of the Woods • William J. Long

... repetition of one endlessly repeated design. The same foolish ornamentation on every house reiterates the same suggestion. Their places of worship, the blank chapels and pseudo-Gothic churches rear themselves head and shoulders above the dull level, only to repeat the same threat of obedience to a gloomy law.... The thought of Gospel Oak and its like is the thought of imitation, of imitation falling back and becoming stereotyped, until the meaning of the thing so persistently copied ...
— The Child Under Eight • E.R. Murray and Henrietta Brown Smith

... uses of a cullender, and gave Wiggleswick to understand that she was a woman of her word, and that an undrained cabbage would be the signal for the execution of her threat. From the first she had assumed despotic power over Wiggleswick, of whose influence with his master she had been absurdly jealous. But Wiggleswick, bent, hoary, deaf, crabbed, evil old ruffian that he was, like most ex-prisoners instinctively obeyed ...
— Septimus • William J. Locke

... brief December day Rose cheerless over hills of gray, And, darkly circled, gave at noon A sadder light than waning moon. Slow tracing down the thickening sky Its mute and ominous prophecy, A portent seeming less than threat, It sank from sight before it set. A chill no coat, however stout, Of homespun stuff could quite shut out. A hard, dull bitterness of cold, That checked, mid-vein, the circling race Of life-blood in the sharpened face, The coming of the snow-storm told. ...
— Elson Grammer School Literature, Book Four. • William H. Elson and Christine Keck

... might, if not too proud to stoop To quadruped instructors, many a good And useful quality, and virtue too, Rarely exemplified among ourselves; Attachment never to be weaned, or changed By any change of fortune, proof alike Against unkindness, absence, and neglect; Fidelity, that neither bribe nor threat Can move or warp; and gratitude for small And trivial favours, lasting as the life, And glistening even in ...
— The Task and Other Poems • William Cowper

... deemed a wicked act. This, I suppose, was judged of sufficient strength to enforce obedience to the law in those days; so powerful was then men's sense of shame; at present one would scarcely make use of such a threat seriously. The Aequans rebelling, the same consul conducted the war against them; in which no memorable event occurred; for, except ferocity, they retained nothing of their ancient condition. The other consul, Appuleius, invested the town of Nequinum in ...
— The History of Rome; Books Nine to Twenty-Six • Titus Livius

... parting word to David, and with that he hurried out to exasperate old Sechard still further. He found the vinegrower growling to himself outside in the Place du Murier, went with him as far as L'Houmeau, and there left him with a threat of putting in an execution for the costs due to him unless they were paid ...
— Eve and David • Honore de Balzac

... more money. But his employer is also very often his landlord. What happens? In the spring of 1919, 35,000 farm hands went on strike. Lord Bellew of Ballyragget and Lord Powerscourt of Enniskerry used the eviction threat to get the men back to work, and in ...
— What's the Matter with Ireland? • Ruth Russell

... Despite this threat, J. Peters in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, wrote to a Philadelphia friend, "I cannot purchase any coffee without taking, too, one bill a tierce of Claret & Sour, and at L6.8 per gall.... I have been trying day for day, & never could get a grain of Coffee so as to sell it at the limited price ...
— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers



Words linked to "Threat" :   soul, someone, warning, scourge, declaration, menace, yellow peril, commination, terror, person, danger, somebody, mortal, individual



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