本文经授权转载自微信公众号:田间小站
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SAT TEM8 GRE
外刊例句
- Today those ominous predictions look misplaced.
今天,这些不祥的预测看起来是错的。
——《经济学人》 - I was terrified by the idea of dependency, which seemed like an ominous gateway.
我被依赖的想法吓坏了,这似乎是一扇不祥的门户。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[adjective] giving the worrying impression that something bad is going to happen; threateningly inauspicious
[形容词] 给人一种不好的事情即将发生的令人担忧的印象的;凶兆的
深入解读
Ominous 是一个小站(微信公众号:田间小站)先后在 好书推荐 | 一本“超炸”的外刊单词精研小书 和 好书推荐 | 一本让你寒假弯道超车的单词书 中先后提到过的单词。
该词源自拉丁语 omen (对不祥或危险事情的强烈预感),16世纪80年代经拉丁语 ominosus (充满不祥预感的)进入英语后,主要也是用来表示“不祥的、恶兆的、凶兆的、不吉利的”,通常给人一种灾难或邪恶的事情即将发生的印象,令人担忧或惊慌,比如:
- 不祥的乌云
ominous dark clouds - 当我询问我的合同是否将续签时,回答我的是不祥的沉默。
There was an ominous silence when I asked whether my contract was going to be renewed.
名著用例
George and Harry both spun around. Dolores Umbridge was standing in the doorway wrapped in a green tweed cloak that greatly enhanced her resemblance to a giant toad, and smiling in the horribly sickly, ominous way that Harry had come to associate with imminent misery.
乔治和哈利一齐转过身去。多洛雷斯·乌姆里奇站在门口,身上裹着一件绿花呢斗篷,这让她看起来更像一只巨大的癞蛤蟆。她脸上挂着那种令人作呕的、不祥的可怕笑容,哈利已经习惯把它与即将到来的痛苦联系在一起了。
出自英国作家J·K·罗琳的奇幻小说《哈利·波特》系列的第五本《哈利·波特与凤凰社》(Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)。
同近义词
- inauspicious: not conducive to success; unpromising
- portentous: of or like a portent; of momentous significance
- unpropitious: (of a circumstance) not giving or indicating a good chance of success; unfavourable