Such a portentous...monster raised all my curiosity. From Wordnet, Princeton University.
"Yes, this has been what you might call a portentous evening," agreed. From Wordnik.com. [The Motor Girls Through New England or, Held by the Gypsies] Reference
The decision to allow infant baptism is described as portentous: a dramatic sign which foreshadows something. From Wordnik.com. [the problem of infant baptism] Reference
Harris's great skill lies in pulling back every time her creation veers towards the portentous, that is to say the Tolkienesque. From Wordnik.com. [Runemarks: Summary and book reviews of Runemarks by Joanne Harris.] Reference
And cattle spake, portentous! streams stand still. From Wordnik.com. [The Georgics] Reference
Prophet-like dost thou look to yonder portentous sky. From Wordnik.com. [Pan and Æolus: Poems] Reference
It's a nice, portentous cliche, but it doesn't really work. From Wordnik.com. [The Fame Game: Why Everyone's Gloating] Reference
There is no need, therefore, to describe the portentous vehicle. From Wordnik.com. [Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine - Volume 55, No. 344, June, 1844] Reference
These portentous omens are fitly defined in the following lines. From Wordnik.com. [Games For All Occasions] Reference
The supply of animal gayety in this man was something portentous. From Wordnik.com. [Classic French Course in English] Reference
"Constantine" peaks early, then descends into portentous nonsense. From Wordnik.com. [SNAP JUDGMENT: MOVIES] Reference
The next round of changes, however, promises to be more portentous. From Wordnik.com. [Basel group shapes the future of finance] Reference
In the last days of July more portentous tidings arrived from New Orleans. From Wordnik.com. [McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXI, No. 3, July 1908.] Reference
It's a nifty hook, though it sometimes veers from portentous to pretentious. From Wordnik.com. [MUST SEE OF MUST FLEE?] Reference
What had seemed so portentous to her was some exhibit or other of avant-garde art. From Wordnik.com. [ELECTION, NOT CANONIZATION] Reference
"Madison" seems concerned with less portentous events: the hydroplane racing season of 1971. From Wordnik.com. [Calling All Christians] Reference
The entire solemn, portentous edifice that is "The Village" collapses of its own fake weight. From Wordnik.com. [JOAQUIN AFTER MIDNIGHT] Reference
Home destructions and deportations are portentous of a bleaker future for non-Jews in Israel. From Wordnik.com. [Ahmed Moor: Israel Cannot be Both Jewish and Democratic] Reference
WillPretentious and portentous conservative commentator for ABC News, newspapers and NEWSWEEK. From Wordnik.com. [The Newsweek 100] Reference
Big and portentous, "Hoffa" feels like a series of acting exercises inflated to epic proportions. From Wordnik.com. [Not A Season To Be Jolly] Reference
(That came out more portentous than meant, unless it was meant to be mock portentous, of course.). From Wordnik.com. [William Bradley: Mad Men Review: "Christmas Comes But Once A Year," Except for These Three Wise Guys] Reference
Heard or not heard, however, marked or not marked, the rate of our advance is more and more portentous. From Wordnik.com. [Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV.] Reference
TIME DESTROYS EVERYTHING, the movie tells us in portentous billboards -- the seeming moral of the story. From Wordnik.com. [How Far Is Too Far?] Reference
The beneficent dispenser of harvests and offspring, she nevertheless has a portentous and terrific phase. From Wordnik.com. [Moon Lore] Reference
This could have been deadly and portentous, and puddles of portent do slop up the going from time to time. From Wordnik.com. [Desperately Seeking Daddy] Reference
Bill Nighy (as Rufus Scrimgeour) filling Dumbledore's usual role with some vaguely portentous blitherings. From Wordnik.com. [The Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows trailer is here. Break out the fizzing whizbees] Reference
A portentous sign of the times for the conservatives is the appearance of Mrs. Elsie Clews Parsons 'book on. From Wordnik.com. [Socialism: Positive and Negative] Reference
Ex-Committee Clerk -- this same audience that had scornfully treated the portentous periods of the Right Hon. From Wordnik.com. [Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 22, 1893] Reference
The expression sounds portentous, but all it seems to mean is that someone's or something's existence is in jeopardy. From Wordnik.com. [Andrew Levine: The "Existential Threat"] Reference
"What precious fools we all air!" he repeated with the air of a Solon, and shaking his head solemnly with portentous gravity. From Wordnik.com. [Picked up at Sea The Gold Miners of Minturne Creek] Reference
A taxi driver hired to take Cinemaville staffers back to work in Guarenas recently marveled at the studio's portentous façade. From Wordnik.com. [Lights! Camera! Revolución!] Reference
There was the speech reproachfully facing him in its portentous-printed length; must be reeled off, though the glass roof fell. From Wordnik.com. [Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 22, 1893] Reference
America's most portentous domestic event of 2009 was California's deepening crisis, which may prefigure the nation's trajectory. From Wordnik.com. [A Clunker of a Year] Reference
A man whose appearance caused deep-seated consternation, whose forbidding aspect made the very silence portentous and terrifying. From Wordnik.com. [Under the Rose] Reference
This is not to attribute to King the portentous vacancy that you sometimes find in the work of companies such as Nederlands Dans Theater. From Wordnik.com. [Alonzo King Lines Ballet; Retina dance company, Collisions, Juliet Aster] Reference
Through this lens, Blair believed: "Lebanon was embroiled in something far bigger and more portentous than a temporary fight with Israel.". From Wordnik.com. [Lebanon: Blair's other Middle East mistake] Reference
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