How to Use baleful in a Sentence

baleful

adjective

• Holmes’s comments remind us that there’s a long and baleful backstory behind today’s efforts to bring back child labor.
  — Naomi Oreskes, Scientific American, 1 June 2023
• Three Virgin Marys kept their baleful eyes on the back of Allen’s head.
  — Han Ong, The New Yorker, 9 Jan. 2023
• A baleful, goateed Robert De Niro, mid-scene in Heat, glares up from the poster board.
  — Zach Baron, GQ, 1 Aug. 2017
• Only a small part of Kate’s baleful career is shown in the film and the Chinese isn’t there at all.
  — Jack Moffitt, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Mar. 2023
• Plus, there would be that litany of baleful side-effect disclaimers.
  — Steve Salerno, WSJ, 20 Apr. 2018
• No wonder people turn such baleful eyes on the bloodless lumps of beans and grain brought into their midst.
  — Wired, 27 Nov. 2019
• Yet subject the cold and briny deep to the Jan Brett treatment and even the slimy skins and baleful eyes of octopi begin to take on an approachable, homey feel.
  — Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 18 Aug. 2017
• With the present spinning out of control, writers began to cast a baleful eye toward the future.
  — Kyle Paoletta, Harper’s Magazine , 13 Mar. 2023
• Many of the Trump presidency’s baleful aspects have little to do with the man himself.
  — Eric Levitz, Daily Intelligencer, 25 Apr. 2018
• As soon as the scene began, Nathan came from another room, whimpered at me and shot baleful glances at the television.
  — Washington Post, 10 Aug. 2021
• There's no room for a baleful Bozo when our most sane clown may be the dancing one killing children in Derry and our most insane clowns have formed a posse.
  — Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 Aug. 2019
• When Spector was a child, his father died by suicide, a violent and baleful act that hung over Spector’s life.
  — Daniel D'addario, Variety, 3 Nov. 2022
• Soon thereafter, rumors of a baleful Bozo moved south to Mulhouse, France, so five local teens formed an anti-clown task force.
  — Michael Howard, Esquire, 27 Oct. 2014
• The lockdown is not overtly mentioned in the album’s 11 songs, but its influence is felt, along with that of climate change and other baleful issues.
  — Allan Kozinn, WSJ, 15 Dec. 2020
• The bleakness is relieved by the rituals of tension—spot the many dogs that stray into view, and listen for the smashing of glass—and by Mungiu’s baleful pastiche of a happy ending.
  — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2017
• Albarn, working with Adele producer Greg Kurstin, fills the record with trilling steel drums, baleful mariachi horns, even a playful riff on the iPhone’s default ringtone.
  — Clayton Purdom, Rolling Stone, 21 Feb. 2023
• And some of it may simply reflect fatigue, after 17 months of baleful headlines and stifling lockdowns.
  — The New York Times, Arkansas Online, 29 Aug. 2021
• This year’s climate summit in Glasgow has been an embarrassing flop for the green brigades, with one baleful exception.
  — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 7 Nov. 2021
• Which helps explain the title, which can be read in joyous terms or baleful, of that colorful picture glowingly commanding the room.
  — Charles Desmarais, San Francisco Chronicle, 5 June 2018
• Lockdown policies had baleful effects on local economies, families and children, and the virus spread anyway.
  — Scott W. Atlas, WSJ, 21 Dec. 2020
• Unlike Ophelia, the patron saint of moribund allure, the women who cloak themselves in these baleful blooms will not be tragic characters.
  — Steff Yotka, Vogue, 12 Mar. 2019
• If Johnson does return as party leader sometime after a Tory election defeat, his baleful presence could be with us until the end of the decade.
  — Tom McTague, The Atlantic, 24 Oct. 2022
• As the vengeful Queen Margaret, who rains curses and florid predictions of doom upon her enemies, Sharon Washington has a baleful majesty.
  — Charles Isherwood, WSJ, 11 July 2022
• Both were ordered by the regional commander of imperial forces in Taiwan and were meant to ward off the baleful influences of nature in this once-remote area.
  — Smithsonian, 22 May 2017
• Quinones cuts the baleful trafficking news with stories about innovative rehab programs, drug courts and addicts who get clean.
  — Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2021
• Civil society will need to continue stepping up in the years to come, because, if countries keep digging up their oil and gas, every record broken will likely be a baleful one.
  — Bill McKibben, The New Yorker, 31 July 2022
• Despite this baleful record, deficit hawks retain an honored place among financial pundits.
  — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 3 Sep. 2021
• Emotions seem to visit you from everywhere: the passing clouds; the picture that triggers a memory; a baleful passage of song; or an exuberant melody.
  — Philly.com, 9 June 2017
• Most people know Muna for their hook-laden, vibe-inducing electro-pop singles — so when the trio dropped a baleful country song earlier this week, fans were certainly shocked.
  — Stephen Daw, Billboard, 29 Apr. 2022
• Her story is, too, engaging because of its baleful sense of Murphy’s having disappeared in plain sight, falling from fame to a reclusive existence to death.
  — Daniel D'addario, Variety, 13 Oct. 2021

Last Updated: 12 Nov 2024