threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments; a baleful look; forbidding thunderclouds; his tone became menacing; ominous rumblings of discontent; sinister storm clouds; a sinister smile; his threatening behavior; ugly black clouds; the situation became ugly

[ Syn: baleful , forbidding , menacing , minacious , minatory , sinister , threatening ]

presaging ill fortune; ill omens; ill predictions; my words with inauspicious thunderings shook heaven- P.B.Shelley; a dead and ominous silence prevailed; a by-election at a time highly unpropitious for the Government

[ Syn: ill , inauspicious ]