portentous : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: portentous	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for portentous
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
portentous adj of momentous or ominous significance; "such a portentous...monster raised all my curiosity"- Herman Melville; "a prodigious vision" Synonym(s): portentous, prodigious ominously prophetic Synonym(s): fateful, foreboding(a), portentous puffed up with vanity; "a grandiloquent and boastful manner"; "overblown oratory"; "a pompous speech"; "pseudo-scientific gobbledygook and pontifical hooey"- Newsweek Synonym(s): grandiloquent, overblown, pompous, pontifical, portentous
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Portentous \Portent"ous\, a. [L. portentosus.] 1. Of the nature of a portent; containing portents; foreshadowing, esp. foreshadowing ill; ominous. For, I believe, they are portentous* things. --Shak. Victories of strange and almost portentous splendor. --Macaulay. 2. Hence: Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; dreadful; as, a beast of portentous size. --Roscommon. -- {Portent"ously}, adv. -- {Portent"ousness}, n.