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at which portends evil; a sign of coming calamity; an omen; a sign. Shak. My loss by dire portents the god foretold. Dryden.

Presaging; foreshadowing.

Of the nature of a portent; containing portents; foreschadowing, esp. foreschadowing ill; ominous. For, I believe, they are portentous things. Shak. Victories of strange and almost portentous splendor. Macaulay.

urs or to augury; betokening; ominous; significant; as, an augural staff; augural books. "Portents augural." Cowper.

Portentous; ominous. Carlyle.

rtune. The strange catastrophe of affairs now at London. Bp. Buret. The most horrible and portentous catastrophe that nature ever yet saw. Woodward.

A sign or prodigy; a portent. [Obs.] Cæsar, I never stood on ceremonies, Yet, now they fright me. Shak. Master of ceremonies, an officer who determines the forms to be observed, or superintends their observance, on a public occasion. -- Not to stand on ceremony, not to be ceremonious; to be familiar, outspoken, or bol…

Ill-boding; portentous; as, dire omens.

aleful aspect of a planet or star; malevolent influence of a heavenly body; hence, an ill portent. [Obs.] Disasters in the sun. Shak.

hich impresses, or exercises an effect, action, or agency; appearance; phenomenon. [Obs.] Portentous blaze of comets and impressions in the air. Milton. A fiery impression falling from out of Heaven. Holland.

To divine or to foreshow by signs or portents; to have omens or premonitions regarding; to predict; to augur; as, to omen ill of an enterprise. The yet unknown verdict, of which, however, all omened the tragical contents. Sir W. Scott.

Of or pertaining to an omen or to omens; being or exhibiting an omen; significant; portentous; -- formerly used both in a favorable and unfavorable sense; now chiefly in the latter; foreboding or foreshowing evil; inauspicious; as, an ominous dread. He had a good ominous name to have made a peace. Bacon. In the heathen…

Manifestation; token; portent. Dryden. We asked of God that some ostent might clear Our cloudy business, who gave us sign. Chapman.

doth overlay. Spenser. Framed of cedar overlaid with gold. Milton. And overlay With this portentous bridge the dark abyss. Milton.

Of the nature of a prodigy; marvelous; wonderful; portentous. [Obs. or R.] Spenser. It is prodigious to have thunder in a clear sky. Sir T. Browne.

ething extraordinary, or out of the usual course of nature, from which omens are drawn; a portent; as, eclipses and meteors were anciently deemed prodigies. So many terrors, voices, prodigies, May warn thee, as a sure foregoing sign. Milton.

Omen; portent. Having God turn the same to good soothsay. Spenser.