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baleful

adj
/ˈbeɪl.fəl/

Etymology

From Middle English baleful, balful, baluful, from Old English bealuful, which was equivalent to bealu + -ful. By surface analysis, bale (“evil, woe”) + -ful. See bale for further etymology.

  1. inherited from bealuful
  2. inherited from baleful

Definitions

  1. Portending evil

    Portending evil; ominous.

    • The street-lamps burn amid the baleful glooms, Amidst the soundless solitudes immense Of ranged mansions dark and still as tombs.
    • According to them all sorcerers, necromancers and evil-doers were born under the baleful influence of the seventh calendic sign[.]
    • […] he went off alone with his family, and, watched by the day's red baleful eye, pumped the pump-car homeward, […]

  2. Miserable, wretched, distressed, suffering.

    • Thou balefull Messenger, out of my sight:
    • round he throws his baleful eyes, that witnessed huge affliction and dismay […]

  3. Deadly, mortal.

    • With balefull weedes, and precious Iuiced flowers, / The earth that's Natures mother, is her Tombe,

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for baleful. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA