adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a bad/ominous sign
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The jury was taking ages to make up its mind, which he felt was probably a bad sign.
an ominous silence (= one that makes you feel that something bad is going to happen )
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‘How long will she be ill?’ There was a short, ominous silence.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
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For others, the turn of the generations will have a more ominous feel.
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However, in the past week, a new and more ominous sign of trouble has appeared: the water is rusty.
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A silent, evil place, becoming more ominous the deeper they went.
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Though less celebrated than Dolly, the birth of Polly is far more ominous .
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Yet in many ways it was more ominous in 1946.
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The second hypothesis is more ominous .
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Tillman suggested they were looking at a way of life, nothing more ominous than that.
■ NOUN
sign
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There had been an ominous sign .
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However, in the past week, a new and more ominous sign of trouble has appeared: the water is rusty.
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There were ominous signs of crumbling in the heart of the Frankish kingdom assigned to Charles in 837.
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What information has been gathered contains some subtle but ominous signs .
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The rising was suppressed, but it was an ominous sign .
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An ominous sign ... or were they just afraid to admit supporting a rebel?
silence
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An ominous silence .. now intervened...
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There is a deep, ominous silence .
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But the first few readings he had assigned had produced an ominous silence .
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Another wave crashed onto the deck and the mast made an ominous creaking sound.
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Katy answered the phone. There was an ominous silence.
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My manager asked for an appointment at nine o'clock on a Monday morning: it sounded ominous .
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There was an ominous silence in the room.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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A sequence played amid a storm exudes the right air of ominous foreboding.
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I felt as if something ominous was happening even as I sat there watching him.
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It is an ominous metaphor, though.
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No one had taken up Sylvian's work, despite the ominous ruler and ink.
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Rumblings that the election might be postponed once again have grown after a series of ominous events in recent weeks.
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So was it ever thus, history the source of ominous portent, further nourishing Bobby Robson's anxiety?
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The music moves from ominous grooves to all-out instrumental pummeling of the listener -- all in the same piece.
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The Straits Times, the government-controlled newspaper, reported the loss in dark, ominous headlines, heavy with foreboding.