Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for POR-TENT'OUS
POR-TENT'OUS, a. [L. portentosus.]
- Ominous; foreshowing ill. Ignorance and superstition hold meteors to be portentous.
- Monstrous; prodigious; wonderful; in an ill sense. No beast of more portentous size, / In the Hercynian forest lies. – Roscommon.
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