impending

adj, noun — 2 senses

impending

adj

/ɪmˈpɛndɪŋ/

Etymology From impend + -ing.

1

Approaching; drawing near; about to happen or expected to happen.

  • I have no time right now because of an impending paper submission deadline.
  • "Keep off Conductor Rails" said red-painted notices at the platform ends, for third-rails were laid in many places even where electric trains never normally ran, and there had been many rumours of impending electrification of the Wirral, as a natural extension of the Mersey system, a quarter of a century before the change was actually made.1954 March, W. A. Tuplin, “Recollections of the Wirral Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 167:
1 more example
  • Randall and Kate aren’t satirical characters. They’re rational thinkers who unwittingly stumble into a Dr. Strangelove type of situation when they discover mankind’s impending doom, and team up with Dr. Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) to report their findings to President Orlean (Meryl Streep).2021 December 7, Jesse Hassenger, “Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence cope with disaster in the despairing satire Don’t Look Up”, in AV Club:
Synonyms
around the corner, at hand, forthcoming, imminent, impendent, impending, in the offing, in the wind, instant, on the boil, pending, upcoming, proximate, to come, toward
Antonyms
happening
Derived terms
impendingly
Related terms
approaching, brewing, looming, soon
Hypernyms
future, possible

impending

noun

Etymology From impend + -ing.

1

Something that impends or threatens; an expected event.

  • Speed of locomotion and staying power in horse and others; the sense of smell in dog and in most other creatures (a far subtler and more analytical faculty than is man's mere perception of odour). Even an uncanny supra-natural sense of natural impendings, catastrophe, earthquake and flood, lacking in man, is found in simpler creatures.1934, Arabella Kenealy, The Human Gyroscope:
  • Although I do think about death quite regularly, my intense fear of lesser impendings has taught me that the only way I will survive it is to remain objective […]1994, Steve Garvey, quoted in 2000, Nicholas Barnes, Ainin H. Garvey, The Lost Writings of Steve Garvey (page 23)

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.