There was something portentous in the way a big red and white bull in the foreground was staring at him.
There was somethingportentous even in the singing of the August insects.
The family doctor looked anxious and puzzled; a great surgeon was called in, and the two shook their heads together in very portentous style.
It is, however, admitted by everyone that the literary results of this portentous activity were essentially ephemeral.
The first and most obvious power in which Macaulay excelled his neighbours was his portentous memory.
The whole heavens were overcast, and a fresh breeze from the southeast was driving portentous scuds before it, and piling them in dark masses along the western horizon.
As the Americans are no less ardently attached to liberty than the English themselves, can it ever be hoped that they will submit to such exorbitant usurpation, to such portentous resolutions?
A long and portentous conference these three persons held in the course of that night, during which they consulted about the best way to punish the French ambassadors, and to take from them the papers which Thugut wished to obtain.
A portentous fermentation is going on everywhere, and the sovereigns, especially the King of France, instead of calming it and extirpating the causes that have produced it, unfortunately are deluded enough to fan the flame.
Here are a crowd of variously portentous spirits,— .
Every phrase is purged, chastened, and full- charged; and flies swiftly with its portentous burden of meaning straight to the mark.
Hast thou ever tried to realize that most sure, most portentous hour, the last hour we shall spend on earth?
The fitful rush of the wind was now disturbed by a portentous sound; it was a quick and heavy knocking at the outer door.
One of the memorable effects of this attempted innovation was that continued stream of libels which ran throughout the nation, under the portentous name of Martin Mar-Prelate.
He had them bound in volumes of all sizes; and a range of twelves, octavos, quartos, and folios were marshalled in portentous order on his shelves.
I spoke against his Homer, and the portentous cub never forgives!
And this is the portentous secret you drag forth so mysteriously,' she cried; 'this is what you have heard in the wine-shops and on the Marina!
As the knight was going out of the room, he suddenly turned back and whispered, with portentous secrecy, 'Concerning that potter, I had nearly forgotten to tell you.
The frowning, towering rocks, the portentous gloom, and the cold inky water sent a shudder through his frame.
Breakfast was eaten in a silence that seemed portentous of impending trouble.
The dogged look on the man's face seemed portentous of evil, and Milly began to cry.
That these portentous vice-presidents and trustees should be actually the fathers of the "best men" he had known at Harvard seemed to him incongruous.
His bathroom, in contrast to the ratherportentous character of his bedroom, was gay, bright, extremely habitable and even faintly facetious.
It was evident that he had something portentouson his mind--he quite obviously wanted to be asked what was the matter.
Götterdämmerung' is prevented by its portentous length from ever becoming popular to the same extent as Wagner's other works, but it contains some of the noblest music he ever wrote.
He pronounces the most portentous maledictions upon her and is bundled out by Pinkerton.
From wintry magazines that sweep the sky, Descending globes of hail incessant fly; High on the masts with pale and lurid rays, Amid the gloom portentous meteors blaze!
So Michael assumed the portentous reverence of a listening amateur and tried to suggest by his attitude that he was beyond the range of Clarissa's conversation.
The Abbey Gatehouse was majestic in the darkness, and the driver pealed the great bell with a portentous clangor.
His rooms at University were always thronged with satellites, who at a word from him changed to meteors and whizzed about Oxford feverishly to outshine the equally portentous but less dazzling exhalations of Liberal opinion.
The first night," which is often so portentous a matter in England and upon the Continent (not of North America), is rarely treated as important by Orientals.
Of course, the good lady was astonished at the portentous shape of her patient's gratitude.
The framed canvas on the right is the original painting by Girard depicting the scene of Joseph in prison, interpreting the portentous dreams of Pharaoh's butler and baker.
Moritz Busch has recorded an occurrence, belonging to the autumn of 1877, which most impressively brings before us the tragic grandeur and the portentous issues of Bismarck's career.
With the Prince of Prussia's accession to the throne and the brilliant successes of the Progressive party in the Prussian elections, men instinctively felt that the times were big with portentous events.
I did not dare to see her die in this portentous lethargy of soul.
The will you are suffering from was a portentous wrong.
Had she not felt it the most awful, the most portentous wrong?
He did the work quite to my satisfaction, but before it was well finished I made a portentous discovery--several of my diamonds were missing.
We have been going thus nearly an hour, when a sudden andportentous change sets in.
I asked, with a sudden sinking of the heart, for the man's manner was even more portentous than his words.
These portentous weapons, fully fourteen feet long, were held in both hands, the reins being meanwhile placed on the knees, and the horses guided by voice and spur.
The conscientious young teacher is led to believe that it contains a recondite and portentous secret, by losing the true inwardness of which her whole career may be shattered.
We are ashamed of ourselves to think we feared the throes of the times, seeing not portentous but pitiable births.
Prince Leopold is now King of the Belgians--but we must put an end in the Tent to that portentous snore.
That chasm should be filled with enduring gloom, thicker and thicker, nor the sun himself suffered to assuage the sullen spirit, now lowering and threatening there, as if portentous of earthquake.
On some portentous morning he effulges with the sun in velveteen jacket and breeches of the same--many-buttoned gaiters, and an unkerchiefed throat.
Instead of 'dumb Prophet struggling to speak,' we have a portentous mixture of the Quack withal!
The truth of it is embedded inportentous error and falsehood; but the truth of it makes it be believed, not the falsehood: it succeeded by its truth.
For himself a most portentous contradiction; the two ends of his life not to be brought into harmony.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "portentous" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
