ter ‧ ri ‧ fy /ˈterəfaɪ, ˈterɪfaɪ/ BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle terrified , present participle terrifying , third person singular terrifies ) [transitive]
[ Date: 1500-1600 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: terrificare , from terrificus ; ⇨ ↑ terrific ]
to make someone extremely afraid:
Her husband’s violence terrified her.
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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.