terrify
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012Related Words
See frighten.
Other Word Forms
- terrifier noun
- terrifyingly adverb
- unterrified adjective
- unterrifying adjective
Etymology
Origin of terrify
1565–75; < Latin terrificāre, equivalent to terr ( ēre ) to frighten + -ificāre -ify
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On the fourth day, President Jimmy Carter visited the plant to reassure a terrified nation that the situation was under control.
Even his cat, Boo, is terrified of their downstairs neighbor, he added.
From Los Angeles Times
"Our children have experienced frightening, scary, overwhelming, terrifying things. They should be afforded treatment for that," says Fiona Wells from Patch.
From BBC
“They’re terrified of someone who actually knows their business,” Bores said.
"I thought it was happening all over again and I was terrified," she says.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
