fright ‧ en /ˈfraɪtn/ BrE AmE verb [transitive]
[ Word Family: adjective : ↑ frightened , ↑ frightening , ↑ frightful ; noun : ↑ fright , ↑ frighteners ; adverb : ↑ frighteningly , ↑ frightfully ; verb : ↑ frighten ]
to make someone feel afraid SYN scare :
Don’t stand so near the edge! You’re frightening me.
She was frightened by the anger in his eyes.
Computers used to frighten me, but not now.
frighten somebody to death/frighten the life out of somebody (=make someone feel extremely afraid)
He drove at a speed which frightened Lara to death.
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THESAURUS
▪ frighten to make someone feel afraid:
The thought of being in court frightened him.
▪ scare especially spoken to frighten someone. Scare is less formal than frighten , and is the usual word to use in everyday English:
He was driving fast just to scare us.
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It scared him to think that his mother might never recover.
▪ terrify to make someone feel extremely frightened:
The idea of going down into the caves terrified her.
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Robbers terrified bank staff by threatening them at gunpoint.
▪ give somebody a fright to make someone suddenly feel frightened in a way that makes their heart beat more quickly:
It gave me a terrible fright when I found him unconscious on the floor.
▪ give somebody the creeps if a person or place gives you the creeps, they make you feel slightly frightened because they are strange:
This house gives me the creeps.
▪ startle to frighten someone. Used when you suddenly see someone and did not know they were there, or when you suddenly hear something:
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.
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The noise startled him, and he dropped his glass on the floor.
▪ alarm to make someone feel frightened and worried that something bad might happen:
I didn’t want to alarm her by calling in the middle of the night.
▪ intimidate to deliberately frighten someone, especially so that they will do what you want:
Many of the gangs were using dogs to intimidate people.
frighten somebody ↔ away phrasal verb
to make a person or animal go away by making them feel afraid:
Terrorist activity in the area has frightened most tourists away.
frighten somebody into something phrasal verb
to force someone to do something by making them afraid
frighten somebody into doing something
He frightened me into staying silent.
frighten somebody/something ↔ off phrasal verb
to make a person or animal so nervous or afraid that they go away or do not do something they were going to do:
The investors were frightened off by the company’s low profits that year.