FRIGHTEN

[verb] [T]An experience like that would be enough to frighten anyone.Some people are frightened of birds.She was frightened by/at the way he spoke.Our dog frightens birds (away) from the garden.Be quiet or you'll frighten the deer away.That noise frightened me to death/out of my wits (= gave me a severe fright).The sight of a gun frightened the life/the (living) daylights/the wits out of them (= It gave them a severe fright).If you frighten someone into/out of doing something, you make them so frightened that they do something that they did not want to do or they do not do something which they had intended to do.His unpleasant manner frightened her into agreeing with him.