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# threaten

«threaten» in Mova's school dictionary: **to say you will hurt someone or do something bad if they…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (threaten, threatens, threatened, threatening)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To threaten is to say you will hurt someone or do something bad if they do not do what you want. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#m1)

2) To threaten is to be a danger to something, like a storm threatening a town. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#m2)

3) To threaten can mean something bad seems likely to happen, like rain threatening. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In safety and anti-bullying lessons, children learn that if someone threatens them, online or in person, they should tell a trusted adult straight away. In science and geography, pollution and habitat loss threaten animals and plants; endangered species are «threatened». In stories, the villain threatens the hero. Phrases: «threaten to», «threatened species», «it threatens to rain».

### examples

- The bully threatened to take my lunch. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#x1)
- If someone threatens you, tell a teacher. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#x2)
- Pollution threatens the coral reef. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#x3)
- Dark clouds threatened rain. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#x4)
- The fire threatened the houses near the forest. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#x5)
- The dragon threatened to burn the village. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#x6)
- Never threaten other people online. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#x7)
- Rising sea levels threaten small islands. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#x8)
- Bluff and threatening words are of little value with rascals. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/#x9)

### note

Past form: threatened. Pronounced «THRET-en»; the «ea» sounds like the e in «bed». «Threaten to + verb»: «He threatened to leave». Related noun: «threat». Threatening someone is never okay and can be against the law.

### In the corpora

- [Sadly, more than a quarter of parrot kinds are threatened, mainly by forest loss and by people catching them as pets.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/303-parrots-of-the-world-macaws-cockatoos-african-greys-lorikeets-and-the-cheeky-kea/7/)
- [Ahead lies the Wild Wood, «low and threatening, like a black reef».](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/33-willows-ch3-part1-winter-and-the-way-to-the-wood/7/)
- [Hearing how important he is, Pau Amma laughs and threatens to go out seven times a day.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/91-justso-crab-2-pau-amma-loses-his-shell/6/)
- [Move away slowly from a bee and do not swat it, because bees sting only when they feel threatened.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/229-gardens-and-forests/14/)
- [Early-winter and late-winter ice can be thin, and falling through it is life-threatening within minutes.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/250-gymnastics-winter-sports-and-fishing/21/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «threaten» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/threaten/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.