PORTENT in a Sentence

Learn PORTENT from example sentences; some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

28 example sentences for PORTENT, such as:

1. He regarded the black cloud as a portent of evil.
2. Before me stretched the portentous menacing road of a new decade.
3. Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity.
4. The report contains numerous portentous references to a future environmental calamity.
5. The spirit of mighty days at that portentous moment made its descent on that unknown man.

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 Meanings and Examples of PORTENT
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
portent
 n.  omen; forewarning; something that portends an event about to occur, especially unfortunate or evil event
Classic Sentence: (24 in 2 pages)
1  I drew near; and essaying to tear up the green wood from the soil, that I might cover the altar with leafy boughs, I see a portent ominous and wonderful to tell.
The Aeneid By Virgil
Context  Highlight   In BOOK THIRD
2  Than these no deadlier portent nor any fiercer plague of divine wrath hath issued from the Stygian waters; winged things with maidens' countenance, bellies dropping filth, and clawed hands and faces ever wan with hunger.
The Aeneid By Virgil
Context  Highlight   In BOOK THIRD
3  Such a portentous and mysterious monster roused all my curiosity.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 1. Loomings.
4  But what most puzzled and confounded you was a long, limber, portentous, black mass of something hovering in the centre of the picture over three blue, dim, perpendicular lines floating in a nameless yeast.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 3. The Spouter-Inn.
5  But at last all these fancies yielded to that one portentous something in the picture's midst.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 3. The Spouter-Inn.
6  But come out now, and look at this portentous lower jaw, which seems like the long narrow lid of an immense snuff-box, with the hinge at one end, instead of one side.
Moby Dick By Herman Melville
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER 74. The Sperm Whale's Head—Contrasted View.
7  The lieutenant, returning from a tour after a bandage, produced from a hidden receptacle of his mind new and portentous oaths suited to the emergency.
The Red Badge of Courage By Stephen Crane
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 22
8  But scarce was this done ere the portentous strength of the Black Knight forced his way inward in despite of De Bracy and his followers.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXI
9  Thus the dangers which Bois-Guilbert surmounted, in themselves sufficiently great, became portentous in their narrative.
Ivanhoe By Walter Scott
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXVII
10  Mr. Bumble, catching at the inquiry very quickly, shook his head with portentous solemnity.
Oliver Twist By Charles Dickens
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XVII
11  As Tom took up the receiver the compressed heat exploded into sound and we were listening to the portentous chords of Mendelssohn's Wedding March from the ballroom below.
The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 7
12  Before me stretched the portentous menacing road of a new decade.
The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 7
13  Tom drew an hour-glass with a full moon and straw limbs to it and armed the spreading fingers with a portentous fan.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer By Mark Twain
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER V
14  The effect was also further heightened by the manner in which, at such moments, he assumed the most portentous frown.
Dead Souls By Nikolai Gogol
Context  Highlight   In PART 1: CHAPTER VIII
15  The spirit of mighty days at that portentous moment made its descent on that unknown man.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER XV—CAMBRONNE
Example Sentence:
1  He regarded the black cloud as a portent of evil.
2  The savage civil war there could be a portent of what's to come in the rest of the region.
3  He waited imperiously for their attention before he began his carefully composed talk, delivered in portentous tones.
4  The report contains numerous portentous references to a future environmental calamity.