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baleful
in a sentence

show 137 more with this conextual meaning
  • How baleful and outlandish and cruel we must have seemed.†   (source)
  • I find myself on the sofa next to Bear, and I cradle them both, Bear in one arm, my rifle in the other, like I'm back in the woods in my tent under the trees that were under the sky that was under the baleful eye of the mothership that was beneath the explosion of stars of which ours is just one—and what are the freaking odds that the Others would pick our star out of the 100 sextillion in the universe to set up shop?†   (source)
  • Marvin eyed him balefully for a moment, and then turned himself off.†   (source)
  • The clerk at the window —a wan Chicana with scraped-back hair —began in a monotone to go down the long baleful list of them.†   (source)
  • Behind it, the masks watched balefully from the wall.†   (source)
  • His pinky ring caught the lobby's electric lights in a baleful sort of wink.†   (source)
  • The frog on her hand croaked and looked at them with baleful eyes.†   (source)
  • I couldn't bear Kate's baleful gaze on me anymore, so I turned away and hurried inside the ship, back to my duties.†   (source)
  • He's tracking us," Edward announced, glaring balefully at Laurent.†   (source)
  • And with a baleful glance at the big brown hat, she picked up the little fur one and started after Betsie round the stairs down to breakfast.†   (source)
  • The drivers of the trucks, an oppressed minority of two, have retreated into the cab of the sound truck to smoke cigarettes and glare balefully at the swarm of thrashers, their sworn enemies in the food chain of the highways.†   (source)
  • And things that cannot—that sit on dusty shelves like stuffed birds with baleful, sideways-staring eyes.†   (source)
  • …the ants will scurry hither and thither, searching more and more busily for some way out, a way to save themselves, but whether because they are paralysed by the suddenness of the attack, or in concern for the fate of their offspring and whatever else they can save, they turn back as if under some baleful influence instead of going straight ahead and out of range, always returning to the same pathways and the same places, unable to break out of the deadly circle — and so they perish.†   (source)
  • Quinn waved away his baleful look.†   (source)
  • An ancient goldfish surfaced and looked balefully at her, then disappeared beneath the dark water.†   (source)
  • Meanwhile, Ch'idzigyaak sat to the side staring rather balefully at the hunters, making them feel uncomfortable.†   (source)
  • More sets of eyes join the first, baleful and slitted.†   (source)
  • He fixed me with a baleful look.†   (source)
  • I still considered all COs the enemy on principle, but I was beginning to understand a bit better why a prisoner might look at them with anything other than a baleful eye.†   (source)
  • And maybe it looked sinister because it was the left shoe, on the left foot, and this is what sinister means of course—unlucky, unfavorable, leftward—and the word was asserting its baleful roots, its edible tubers and stems, through the medium of someone's shoe.†   (source)
  • Felicity lowers her head and gives Pippa a baleful look.†   (source)
  • Whatever the motivation, Rene was not about to challenge the baleful veteran.†   (source)
  • General Dreedle ignored him completely, turning away from him in baleful scorn to hand Yossarian his medal in its case.†   (source)
  • She was smiling, and issuing a baleful stare.†   (source)
  • Pilgrim gave him a baleful look then looked back at the saddle.†   (source)
  • Church regarded her with baleful yellow eyes.†   (source)
  • Even in the baleful glow, Cersei had been beautiful to look upon.†   (source)
  • The remaining women glared ever more balefully at Eugenides, drawing their ranks around their besieged queen.†   (source)
  • The moon was higher now, its baleful face broad enough to fill the eastern horizon.†   (source)
  • As a rooster he path appeared, and as a wolf with baleful eyes, and as a viper black and coiled.†   (source)
  • Frodo and Sam, horror-stricken, began slowly to back away, their own gaze held by the dreadful stare of those baleful eyes; but as they backed so the eyes advanced.†   (source)
  • I could hear the demons astir in the sally port, and I could see them fixing their baleful, inexhaustibly evil stares up on fourth division.†   (source)
  • He stared at her balefully.†   (source)
  • "You'll see when we get there," Nathan said balefully.†   (source)
  • At his back hung the frowning, bearded portrait of an extinct mammalogist who glared balefully down upon me.†   (source)
  • Obviously I had to ponder what to do, had to figure out how to try to set things straight—somehow calm Nathan down and in the process remove Sophie from the target area of his blind and baleful rage—but I was so completely rattled that my brain had become almost amnesic; I was virtually unable to think.†   (source)
  • SALINAS HAD TWO GRAMMAR SCHOOLS, big yellow structures with tall windows, and the windows were baleful and the doors did not smile.†   (source)
  • Polyphemus's eyelids narrowed over his baleful milky eye, as if he were trying to see Clarisse more clearly.   (source)
    baleful = threatening
  • The budget cuts had a baleful effect on education.
  • The newborn shot a baleful glare at Jane, her lips pressed tightly together.†   (source)
  • 'Eh?' said Mundungus, peering balefully at Harry through his matted ginger hair.†   (source)
  • Slughorn eyed Dumbledore balefully for a moment, then muttered, "I haven't given them the chance.†   (source)
  • Baleful notes echoed through Farthen Dur as war horns sounded.†   (source)
  • He also noticed the baleful look Frank was giving Leo.†   (source)
  • Jared glared balefully at the old man, his eyes full of the shock and pain of the betrayed.†   (source)
  • The rodent's red eyes glared at her balefully, like tiny coals.†   (source)
  • "I have one more announcement," said Mr. Pruitt, staring balefully at the entire student body.†   (source)
  • Her face is hard again, her eyes baleful.†   (source)
  • The young knight gave his cousin a baleful glance and pulled the door shut forcefully behind him.†   (source)
  • But she didn't protest beyond the baleful look.†   (source)
  • I look balefully at the sinking sun, willing it to at least slow down.†   (source)
  • "I have one more announcement," said Mr. Pruitt, staring balefully at the entire student body.†   (source)
  • Aeron gave him a baleful look, the look that had been known to sour wells and make women barren.†   (source)
  • Late in the afternoon he and Ron escaped Hermione's baleful presence again and under the pretense of scouring the bare hedges for nonexistent blackberries, they continued their ongoing exchange of news.†   (source)
  • "I was saying, my dear, that you were clearly born under the baleful influence of Saturn," said Professor Trelawney, a faint note of resentment in her voice at the fact that he had obviously not been hanging on her words.†   (source)
  • Could you let me in on , Then it came, it came at once, the way all the really ideas came, rounded and smooth and utterly persuasive in its baleful perfection.†   (source)
  • This was an ominous and baleful sight, as they appeared crouched as if ready to spring and destroy; and in that way they were like a gathering of crows, only white.†   (source)
  • This morning the tornado warnings were out, on the weather channel, and by mid-afternoon the sky had turned a baleful shade of green and the branches of the trees had begun to thrash around as if some huge, enraged animal was fighting its way through.†   (source)
  • The show was complicated to find, and as we wandered the busy galleries (weaving in and out of crowds, turning right, turning left, backtracking through labyrinths of confusing signage and layout) large gloomy reproductions of The Anatomy Lesson appeared erratically and at unexpected junctures, baleful signposts, the same old corpse with the flayed arm, red arrows beneath: operating theater, this way.†   (source)
  • I walked with Jeremiah partway down the drive, with McDermott looking on with a baleful scowl from the kitchen doorway; but I didn't care what he thought, as he was not my owner.†   (source)
  • Or, more balefully, She's asking for it, she'll get what's coming to her, or, in the worst cases, She's an accident waiting to happen.†   (source)
  • As the dragon's baleful eye fell upon him, Eragon knew that the creature was no mere apparition but a conscious being bound and sustained by magic.†   (source)
  • The raven shrieked its displeasure and flapped up to a bedpost to glare down balefully at him through the predawn gloom.†   (source)
  • He must have been twelve feet tall and was dressed in robes of golden silk that were at odds with his head, which was that of a baleful red wolf.†   (source)
  • Spike looked at him balefully.†   (source)
  • The sun had sunk beyond the highest Joshua trees and had taken on a reddish glow and peered at them with baleful indifference through the black, tortured branches.†   (source)
  • Edward was truly snarling now, the sound ripping and tearing from him, glaring at Aro with baleful eyes.†   (source)
  • The pulsing glow from the coals lit Roran's face from below, forming thick shadows above his mouth and across his forehead and giving his heavy, half-lidded eyes a baleful aspect.†   (source)
  • Instead of pitted and baleful amber eyes, there were the friendly brown glass balls from which his Teddy observed the world.†   (source)
  • Her baleful eyes held Annabeth's.†   (source)
  • His place is to be a lover, with his secrecy and his almost-empty rooms, and his baleful memories and bad dreams.†   (source)
  • The strange, baleful light gave the water and the soldiers an unearthly aspect, bleaching them of color and projecting long, thin, razor-sharp shadows across the shifting water, while beyond and all around, the fullness of night prevailed.†   (source)
  • But that was the law, Sergeant Towser explained, and all Yossarian could do was glare at them in baleful apology as he made room for them and volunteer helpful penitent hints as they moved inside his privacy and made themselves at home.†   (source)
  • When the direwolf raised his head, his eyes glowed red and baleful, and water streamed down from his jaws like slaver.†   (source)
  • I heard nothing except the baleful buzzing of mosquitoes; but George, who had been sleeping on the crest of the esker, suddenly sat up, cocked his ears forward and pointed his long muzzle toward the north.†   (source)
  • And they were out of ideas for a while, standing at the ledge and taking in the baleful view together, uncomfortably, she thought, because esthetic judgments feel superficial when you share them with a stranger, and finally she sensed a rustle, a disturbance in his bearing that was meant to mark a change of subject, earnest and determined, and he said to her, still looking toward the towers, he whispered actually, "I like your work, you know."†   (source)
  • The turtle stopped at the entrance to the straits and glared at them balefully, but it made no attempt to follow.†   (source)
  • Baleful green tides moved against the bellies of the clouds, and pools of orange light spread out across the heavens.†   (source)
  • Then, just when that was blowing over, there was the matter of Clevinger's plane disappearing so mysteriously in thin air with every member of the crew, and blame for the strange mishap centering balefully on him because he had never signed any of the loyalty oaths.†   (source)
  • I began to grow decidedly fidgety, for I dislike staring matches, and in this particular case I was up against a master, whose yellow glare seemed to become more baleful as I attempted to stare him down.†   (source)
  • Baleful, unrelenting, they hid yet betrayed the fury and disaster behind them.†   (source)
  • He backed against a wall, his eyes lowered in a baleful glare. what's the matter, boy?†   (source)
  • When she was angry her eyelids drooped halfway down over her pupils, giving her a baleful aspect.†   (source)
  • He had cringed and sweated and felt the baleful speculative stare of the Boss on him in the long silence after he had tried to sell the idea of Gummy Larson.†   (source)
  • But they were all conscious of him, of the steady back (he worked well enough, with a kind of baleful and restrained steadiness) and arms.†   (source)
  • Then the ground, the bark of trees, became actual, savage, filled with, evocative of, strange and baleful half delights and half terrors.†   (source)
  • He stood quite still, with his hands in his trousers and cigarette smoke drifting across his still face and the cloth cap worn, like the stiff hat, at that angle at once swaggering and baleful.†   (source)
  • But they were of decent serge, sharply creased, and his shirt was soiled but it was a white shirt, and he wore a tie and a stiffbrim straw hat that was quite new, cocked at an angle arrogant and baleful above his still face.†   (source)
  • So cold, so baleful he stood there that Brown inside the shop, among the lights, the air heavy with lotion and hot soap, gesticulant, thickvoiced, in the soiled redbarred trousers and the soiled colored shirt, looked up in midvoice and with his drunken eyes looked into the eyes of the man beyond the glass.†   (source)
  • A desperate gleam, baleful and vainglorious, flashed over his face.†   (source)
  • His face set hard, and a baleful light sprang up in his grey eyes.†   (source)
  • It cast a baleful and sinister color upon the hard faces there.†   (source)
  • And then with a dark and baleful hate: "Kells!†   (source)
  • Then Rebecca's twinkling green eyes and baleful smile lighted upon her, and filled her with dismay.†   (source)
  • What is that ghastly face looking out balefully after him from behind the arras?†   (source)
  • There are sudden revelations which one cannot bear, and which intoxicate like baleful wine.†   (source)
  • He was now become, to them, the most balefully interesting object they had ever looked upon, and they could not take their fascinated eyes from his face.†   (source)
  • It was generally understood that their abrupt departure was due to Madame Olenska's desire to remove her aunt from the baleful eloquence of Dr. Agathon Carver, who had nearly succeeded in enlisting her as a recruit for the Valley of Love; and in the circumstances no one had expected either of the ladies to return for the wedding.†   (source)
  • Her eyes seemed to burn balefully.†   (source)
  • The body in the house had made him uncomfortable: in life the poor woman had been all that was kind and gentle; and yet, when she lay upstairs in her bed-room, cold and stark, it seemed as though she cast upon the survivors a baleful influence.†   (source)
  • Snap Naab swayed to the door, and stepped down, all the time with his face over his shoulder, his baleful glance on Hare; then the blue haze swallowed him.†   (source)
  • They seemed to swarm over the place all at once, till the lamplight, shining on their moving dark bodies and glittering, baleful eyes, made the place look like a bank of earth set with fireflies.†   (source)
  • Then he turned toward the company: his gentle manner changed, and baleful lightnings began to play from his eyes.†   (source)
  • Then he passed Joan, looking down upon her and then upon the recumbent figure of Kells; and if his glance was not baleful and malignant, as it swept over the bandit, Joan believed her imagination must be vividly weird, and running away with her judgment.†   (source)
  • At the mention of the Tockahoopo Indians, I could really have supposed Egbert to be one of the most baleful members of that tribe, he gave me such a savage frown.†   (source)
  • Her temper was too sweet for her to show any anger, but she felt that her happiness had received a bruise, and for several days merely to look at Fred made her cry a little as if he were the subject of some baleful prophecy.†   (source)
  • As she was observed at this time to direct baleful glances towards the Marshalsea, it has been supposed that this admirably consistent female intended by 'him,' Arthur Clennam.†   (source)
  • Yet in nowise That wretch of the grooms any solace hath got him, Nor longer will live the loathly deed-doer, Beswinked with sins; for the sore hath him now In the grip of need grievous, in strait hold togather'd With bonds that be baleful: there shall he abide, That wight dyed with all evil-deeds, the doom mickle, For what wise to him the bright Maker will write it.†   (source)
  • But sliding down the ropes like baleful comets, the two Canallers rushed into the uproar, and sought to drag their man out of it towards the forecastle.†   (source)
  • Then Newman reflected that these are mighty mysteries, that possibly he himself was indeed that baleful and barely mentionable thing, a cynic, and that his manner of considering the treasures of art and the privileges of life was probably very base and immoral.†   (source)
  • I have but an indistinct idea of what happened for some time after this baleful object presented itself to my view.†   (source)
  • Many of the men sprang forward, officiously, to offer their services, either from the hope of the reward, or from that cringing subserviency which is one of the most baleful effects of slavery.†   (source)
  • The Jew sat with his mouth agape, and his eyes fixed on the savage baron with such earnestness of terror, that his frame seemed literally to shrink together, and to diminish in size while encountering the fierce Norman's fixed and baleful gaze.†   (source)
  • But when the occasion presented itself, there was suddenly seen to emerge from all this shadow, as from an ambuscade, a narrow and angular forehead, a baleful glance, a threatening chin, enormous hands, and a monstrous cudgel.†   (source)
  • …after visiting Mrs. Smallweed with one of these admonitions, is particularly impressive and not wholly prepossessing, firstly because the exertion generally twists his black skull-cap over one eye and gives him an air of goblin rakishness, secondly because he mutters violent imprecations against Mrs. Smallweed, and thirdly because the contrast between those powerful expressions and his powerless figure is suggestive of a baleful old malignant who would be very wicked if he could.†   (source)
  • In the country, when Lady Jane was telling stories to the children, who clustered about her knees (little Rawdon into the bargain, who was very fond of her), and Becky came into the room, sneering with green scornful eyes, poor Lady Jane grew silent under those baleful glances.†   (source)
  • There is, in that mode of life, good mingled with evil, for if enervation is baleful, generosity is good and healthful.†   (source)
  • Apollo turned away to rest in Pergamos, upon the height, while baleful Ares through the ranks of Trojans made his way to stiffen them.†   (source)
  • Lie there: you might fulfill your mother's curse, baleful as she is, incensed at you, because you switched to Trojans from Akhaians.†   (source)
  • A lion or a leopard could not be so reckless; or a boar, baleful with pounding fury in his ribcage: the sons of Panthoos are bolder, more headlong than these.†   (source)
  • As on a flock of goats or sheep, unshepherded and undefended, a baleful lion falls, the son of Tydeus fell upon those Thracians until he had killed twelve.†   (source)
  • As from night clouds a baleful summer star will blaze into the clear, then fade in cloud, so Hektor shone in front or became hidden when he harangued the rear ranks—his whole form in bronze aflash like lightning of Father Zeus.†   (source)
  • And aging Priam was the first to see him sparkling on the plain, bright as that star in autumn rising, whose unclouded rays shine out amid a throng of stars at dusk— the one they call Orion's dog, most brilliant, yes, but baleful as a sign: it brings great fever to frail men.†   (source)
  • Imagine how the pyre of a burning town will tower to heaven and be seen for miles from the island under attack, while all day long outside their town, in brutal combat, pikemen suffer the wargod's winnowing; at sundown flare on flare is lit, the signal fires shoot up for other islanders to see, that some relieving force in ships may come: just so the baleful radiance from Akhilleus lit the sky.†   (source)
  • One damn thing after another, I thought balefully.†   (source)
  • The skin lay on the floor, glowering balefully in the candlelight.†   (source)
  • World Take Good Notice World take good notice, silver stars fading, Milky hue ript, wet of white detaching, Coals thirty-eight, baleful and burning, Scarlet, significant, hands off warning, Now and henceforth flaunt from these shores.†   (source)
  • Sad cypress, vervain, yew, compose the wreath, And ev'ry baleful green denoting death.†   (source)
  • But his doom Reserved him to more wrath; for now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain Torments him: round he throws his baleful eyes, That witnessed huge affliction and dismay, Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate.†   (source)
  • In mournful pomp the matrons walk the round, With baleful cypress and blue fillets crown'd, With eyes dejected, and with hair unbound.†   (source)
  • The grey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night, Chequering the eastern clouds with streaks of light; And flecked darkness like a drunkard reels From forth day's path and Titan's fiery wheels: Non, ere the sun advance his burning eye, The day to cheer and night's dank dew to dry, I must up-fill this osier cage of ours With baleful weeds and precious-juiced flowers.†   (source)
  • …part, in squadrons and gross bands, On bold adventure to discover wide That dismal world, if any clime perhaps Might yield them easier habitation, bend Four ways their flying march, along the banks Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge Into the burning lake their baleful streams— Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate; Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep; Cocytus, named of lamentation loud Heard on the rueful stream; fierce Phlegeton, Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage.†   (source)
  • The sacred lake of Trivia from afar, The Veline fountains, and sulphureous Nar, Shake at the baleful blast, the signal of the war.†   (source)
  • First, from the ground a lofty pile they rear, Of pitch trees, oaks, and pines, and unctuous fir: The fabric's front with cypress twigs they strew, And stick the sides with boughs of baleful yew.†   (source)
  • Unseen, unfelt, the fiery serpent skims Betwixt her linen and her naked limbs; His baleful breath inspiring, as he glides, Now like a chain around her neck he rides, Now like a fillet to her head repairs, And with his circling volumes folds her hairs.†   (source)
  • They fed, and, flutt'ring, by degrees withdrew Still farther from the place, but still in view: Hopping and flying, thus they led him on To the slow lake, whose baleful stench to shun They wing'd their flight aloft; then, stooping low, Perch'd on the double tree that bears the golden bough.†   (source)
  • Night, Erebus, and Chaos she proclaims, And threefold Hecate, with her hundred names, And three Dianas: next, she sprinkles round With feign'd Avernian drops the hallow'd ground; Culls hoary simples, found by Phoebe's light, With brazen sickles reap'd at noon of night; Then mixes baleful juices in the bowl, And cuts the forehead of a newborn foal, Robbing the mother's love.†   (source)
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