portentous (portent us)

[ This portentous figure Comes armed through our watch, so like the king That was. Shak ., Hamlet, i. 1. 109. All is deep silence, like the fearful calm That slumbers in the storm's portentous pause. Shelley, Queen Mab, iv. 2. Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful. On the banke of this ryuer there is a towne of such por tentous byggenes as I dare not speake. R. Eden, tr. of Peter Martyr (First Books on America, ed. [Arber, p. 194). Let us see whether we can discover in any part of their schemes the portentous ability which may justify these bold undertakers in the superiority which they a ume over mankind. Burke , Rev. in France. The neck was thrice encircled by a white muslin cravat tied in a portentous bow with drooping ends. Fortnightly Rev., N. S., XLII. 290. portentously (põr-ten'tus-li), adv. In a portentous manner; ominously; monstrously; wonderfully.