portentous, a.
(pɔːˈtɛntəs)
Also 6 portentius, 7–9 -uous, 7 -eous.
[ad. L. portentōsus, -uōsus (whence also obs. F. portenteux, It. portentoso), f. portentum portent: see -ous and -uous.]
1. Of the nature of a portent; foreboding some extraordinary and (usually) calamitous event; ominous, threatening, warning.
| c 1540 tr. Pol. Verg. Eng. Hist. (Camden) I. 140 With these portentius thinges albeit he was feared,..yeat, fearinge noe deceite..went forward on his waye. 1573 L. Lloyd Marrow of Hist. (1653) 153 Such portentuous miracles then seen in Rome. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1332 Many portenteous signes were given by terrible tempests. 1611 B. Jonson Catiline iv. ii, Stop that portentous mouth. 1641 Milton Reform. ii. Wks. 1851 III. 45 Let the Astrologer be dismay'd at the portentous blaze of comets. 1708 Brit. Apollo No. 14. 2/1 Actual Bleeding must needs be more Portentuous than a meer Dream. 1727 De Foe Syst. Magic i. iv. (1840) 106 Having foretold the portentous events of the late meteor. 1829 Lytton Devereux i. iii, There is something portentous in this sudden change. 1878 Stewart & Tait Unseen Univ. ii. §66. 81 The event loses from thenceforth much of its portentous significance. |
2. Applied, without any connected sense of augury, to an object exciting wonder, awe, or amazement; marvellous, monstrous, prodigious; hence as an intensive (sometimes humorous) = extraordinary.
| 1553 Eden Treat. Newe Ind. (Arb.) 36 A foure foted beast of monstrous shape..hauinge..beneath his comon belye, an other belye lyke vnto a purse or bagge, in which he kepeth his yonge whelpes... This portentous beast with her three whelpes was broughte to Cimle in Spaine. 1555 ― Decades 159 A towne of such portentous byggenes. 1607 Bp. J. King Serm. 5 Nov. 23 So nefarious, flagitious, portentuous a wickednesse, as this was. 1639 Fuller Holy War v. xix. (1840) 275 By such portentous and extravagant numbers. 1695 Woodward Nat. Hist. Earth iii. ii. (1723) 175 Such a Deluge..would require a portentous Quantity of Water. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 252 See whether we can discover in their schemes the portentous ability, which may justify these bold undertakers. 1821 Craig Lect. Drawing i. 4 Since that portentuous period, the wealth of our happy country has.. increased. 1823 Lockhart Reg. Dalton ii. i, A portentous apple-dumpling. 1877 Gladstone Glean. IV. xvii. 352 Russia will have to make..a portentous effort, when she is to leap from Constantinople to Calcutta. |