Meaning of threat in English

threat

/θret/ us

/θret/

a suggestion that something unpleasant or violent will happen, especially if a particular action or order is not followed:

[ + to infinitive ] Her parents carried out their threat to take away her mobile phone if her grades didn't improve.

threat of The threat of jail failed to deter him from petty crime.

pose a threat to Drunken drivers pose a serious threat (= cause a lot of harm) to other road users.

empty threat He says he'll tell the authorities but it's just an empty threat (= it will not happen).

be under threat of something

to be in a situation where people are threatening you or something else with something bad or unpleasant:

She left the country under threat of arrest if she returned.

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Nuclear weapons pose a threat to everyone.
The police have to take any terrorist threat seriously.
It is hoped that the kidnappers will not carry out their threat to kill the hostages.
Three main line railway stations were closed because of bomb threats.
The key witness for the prosecution was offered police protection after she received death threats.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Dangers and threats

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(Definition of threat from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

threat | American Dictionary

threat

noun

/θret/

threat noun (PROMISE TO HURT)

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[ C ]

a statement that someone will be hurt or harmed, esp. if the person does not do something in particular:

She was fired after making threats to her co-workers.

threat noun (UNWANTED POSSIBILITY)

[ C/U ]

the possibility that something unwanted will happen, or a person or thing that is likely to cause something unwanted to happen:

[ U ] A threat of rain is in today’s forecast.

[ U ] The boundary dispute raised the threat of war.

(Definition of threat from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of threat

threat

Then why does threat simulation co-occur with psychological troubles?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In approaching their prospects, network marketers enjoy the privilege of exploiting the element of intimacy by reducing the potential threat to their prospects' negative face.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Some participants reported that the threat was current and ongoing, while others did not think it would happen for over 6 months.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Could one overcome the threat to the interest theory by arguing that interests are ranked only by their contribution to further interests?

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The simulation of threat recognition is supposed to proceed in the following way.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

It is also not unique in suffering high levels of air and water pollution and facing severe threats to its biological resources.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This may have been used as both reward and threat.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Yet, this may be ultimately the most manageable of the threats.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Even the most salient traces typically represent only relatively mild threats.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In the wider context of the decade this was a disturbing threat to a nominally ordered society.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

And certainly there are persons to whom no further threat can be made.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The child is never personally in danger; the threats are directed against some characters in the story.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

These findings strongly suggest that future research efforts may be profitably directed toward this heretofore underappreciated threat to children's adjustment.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Perhaps the most vexing aspect of this validity threat is the problems associated with polytomously scored responses, specifically deciding how to weight partially correct responses.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

This notion of threat stimuli includes signals that connote or predict punishment.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.