ill-boding
Signaling bad outcomes
Ill-boding means ominous or portending misfortune.
An ill-boding sign suggests bad things to come: The dark clouds gathering on the horizon seemed ill-boding.
The word is literary and somewhat archaic, carrying a sense of foreboding or evil prophecy: an ill-boding silence fell over the court.
Threateningly suggestive of harm
- darkAbsence of light
- gloomyDark and dispiriting
- eerieDisturbingly strange
- hauntingDisturbingly unforgettable
chilling · shadowy · macabre · baleful · inauspicious · threatening · menacing · dire
Advance sense of future events
- portentSign of future calamity
- omenProphetic indicator
- warningAlert about danger
- dreadIntense anticipatory fear
apprehension · presentiment · augury · harbinger · forewarning · misgiving · intuition · prophecy
Invoked harm through words
- hexMalevolent incantation
- jinxCurse bringing misfortune
- evil eyeHarm-dealing gaze, supposedly
- bad luckUnfavorable chance events
charm · omen · witchcraft · spell · divination · augury · tarot · fortune-telling
Dark and dispiriting
- bleakDreary and without cheer
- hopelessBeyond possibility of success
- fatalisticBelieving events are inevitable
- defeatistOne expecting inevitable failure
despairing · dismal · negative · cynical · morose · despondent · nihilistic · melancholic
sinister
Threateningly suggestive of harm
haunting · chilling · shadowy · macabre · baleful · inauspicious · threatening · menacing · dire · grim
premonition
Advance sense of future events
dread · apprehension · presentiment · augury · harbinger · forewarning · misgiving · intuition · prophecy · sign
curse
Invoked harm through words
bad luck · charm · omen · witchcraft · spell · divination · augury · tarot · fortune-telling · astrology
gloomy
Dark and dispiriting
- bleakDreary and without cheer
- hopelessBeyond possibility of success
- fatalisticBelieving events are inevitable
defeatist · despairing · dismal · negative · cynical · morose · despondent · nihilistic · melancholic · downcast
ill-bodingauspicious
Indicating future success
propitious · promising · favorable · hopeful · encouraging
ill-bodingencouraging
Giving confidence or hope
heartening · hopeful · reassuring · comforting · uplifting
ill, foreboding, bode, forebode, boded, boding, bodes, forebodingly, forebodes