High-Vocabulary Word of the Day

Minatory

Daunting, or threatening

Examples:

A traffic warden, a lady of a minatory aspect, stood by the car. She pointed to a notice on the wall. “Can’t you read?” she said.
— William Golding, nobel lecture

In the recurring dream
   my mother stands
      in her bridal gown
under the burning lilac,
   with Bernard Shaw and Bertie
      Russell kissing her hands;
the house behind her is in ruins;
   she is wearing an owl's face
      and makes barking noises.
Her minatory finger points.

— Stanley Kunitz, The Testing Tree

The Spanish action was Minatory. It was a matter for our discretion to determine whether it was also hostile.
— Theodore Roosevelt, Letter to Munroe Smith

Etymology:

This word has the same origin as “menace”; the Latin word minari