With "Blue Nights", named for the intense and portentous beauty of the dying light on a summer day, Ms Didion has translated the sad hum of her thoughts into a profound meditation on mortality.
Tom drew an hour-glass with a full moon and straw limbs to it and armed the spreading fingers with a portentous fan.
He introduced each portentous subject with buoyant enthusiasm.
A portentous souffle that never truly rises.
The words always had a portentous sound in my ears, like muffled drums or the words of the death sentence.
The Raelians are a small group, chiefly Canadian and French, founded by one Claude Vorilhon, who now goes by the more portentous handle of "Rael".
The portentous Thinker I placed on the edge of the cupboard so that he looked down at the bath towel and waited for it to slip.