2 uses
(click/touch triangles for details)
Definition
very important; or indicating something important in the future
or:
acting overly important or serious
or:
acting overly important or serious
- I asked them to consider the coincidence of Nick's thirtieth birthday; the meaning of the sentence "Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade" might give our class as much trouble as the meaning of "an urban distaste for the concrete."p. 328.6
- It was Owen, using Tess of the d'Urbervilles as an example, who showed me how to write a term paper, describing the incidents that determine Tess's fate by relating them to that portentous sentence that concludes Chapter Thirty-six—"new growths insensibly bud upward to fill each vacated place; unforeseen accidents hinder intentions, and old plans are forgotten."p. 330.1
There are no more uses of "portentous" in A Prayer for Owen Meany.
Typical Usage
(best examples)