Definition
: having a menacing quality
Examples
In the moonlight, the twisted winter trees took on a particularly baleful and minatory appearance.
Did You Know?
Knowing that minatory means "threatening," can you take a guess at a related word? If you're familiar with mythology, perhaps you guessed Minotaur, the name of the bull-headed, people-eating monster of Crete. Minotaur
is a good guess, but as terrifying as the monster sounds, its name
isn't related to today's word. The relative we're searching for is
actually menace. Minatory and menace both come from derivatives of the Latin verb minari, which means "to threaten." Minatory was borrowed directly from Late Latin minatorius. Menace came to English via Anglo-French manace, menace, which came from Latin minac-, minax, meaning "threatening."
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