frighten
Americanverb (used with object)
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frightens,
present (3rd person singular)
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frightened,
past participle, past
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frightening
present participle
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to make afraid or fearful; throw into a fright; terrify; scare.
- Synonyms:
- intimidate, dismay, startle, shock
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to drive (usually followed by away, off, etc.) by scaring.
to frighten away pigeons from the roof.
verb (used without object)
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frightens,
present (3rd person singular)
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frightened,
past participle, past
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frightening
present participle
verb
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to cause fear in; terrify; scare
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to drive or force to go (away, off, out, in, etc) by making afraid
Synonym Usage
Frighten, alarm, scare, terrify, terrorize, appall all mean to arouse fear in people or animals. To frighten is to shock with sudden, startling, but usually short-lived fear, especially that arising from the apprehension of physical harm: to frighten someone by a sudden noise. To alarm is to arouse the feelings through the realization of some imminent or unexpected danger: to alarm someone by a scream. To scare is to frighten, often without the presence of real danger: Horror movies really scare me. To terrify is to strike with violent, overwhelming, or paralyzing fear: to terrify a city by lawless acts. To terrorize is to terrify in a general, continued, systematic manner, either wantonly or in order to gain control: His marauding armies terrorized the countryside. To appall is to overcome or confound by dread, dismay, shock, or horror: The suffering caused by the earthquake appalled him.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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frightenernoun
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overfrightenverb
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frightenableadjective
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frightenedadjective
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frighteningadjective
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nonfrighteningadjective
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unfrighteningadjective
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frighteninglyadverb
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nonfrighteninglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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frightensimple
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frightenssimple
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have frightenedperfect
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has frightenedperfect
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am frighteningprogressive
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are frighteningprogressive
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is frighteningprogressive
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have been frighteningperfect progressive
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has been frighteningperfect progressive
Past
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frightenedsimple
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had frightenedperfect
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was frighteningprogressive
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were frighteningprogressive
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had been frighteningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of frighten
Explanation
To frighten is to make someone feel afraid. Your new look — pink hair, tattoos, and piercings — will probably frighten your grandparents. If horror movies and haunted houses frighten you, they scare you, and all it might take to frighten your skittish cat is the sound of the vacuum cleaner or coffee grinder. Frighten is the verb form of the noun fright. although originally the verb was also fright. The Old English source is fyrhtu, "fear, dread, trembling, or horrible sight."
Vocabulary lists containing frighten
Unit 1, Academic Vocabulary
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Terrify
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Terrify
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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.
See Examples For:
First used by Ottoman military "mehter" bands to frighten and demoralise the enemy, cymbals were a useful tool for an empire on the warpath.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
Wildlife experts say human-bear conflicts are the result of people moving deeper into the wildlands, and that bears that wander into neighborhoods are often harmless and easy to frighten.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
"Until yesterday, I never thought there would be something that would frighten me of going back to Liverpool after the break. Team-mates come and go but not like this," Salah posted last summer.
From BBC ● May 23, 2026
“My concern is about the publicizing of these kinds of incidents as a tool to frighten people,” Weiser said.
From Salon ● May 14, 2026
“You’re not nervous, are you? Did that story frighten you?”
From "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson
I’m not here to persuade you to fly if it frightens you that much.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 9, 2026
Desai: It looked at year end like Kevin Hassett’s star was on the rise, but none of the names discussed frightens me.
From Barron's ● Jan. 9, 2026
Its ultimate goal remains independence but its current leader, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has taken a fresh approach, acknowledging that the idea of Wales going it alone frightens some voters.
From BBC ● Nov. 19, 2025
A sniff of a rotting old chair frightens Indy so much, he wets the rug.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2025
It frightens me the way he yells and cries and sings and I wish I could be at home with my three brothers, no, my two brothers, and my mother.
From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt
Crews also attended incidents elsewhere in Wales, including in Ferndale, Rhondda Cynon Taf, where a BBC reporter on the scene said residents were "frightened".
From BBC ● Aug. 15, 2026
He described how the local community felt frightened by the tensions.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
He was pained and frightened: He’d never seen such a thing.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
When Odysseus’ men arrive at Circe’s home, hungry, asking to be fed, Circe seems frightened — understandably so.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
Something that frightened Natalie even more than the alligator.
From "Two Degrees" by Alan Gratz
Minnie Driver’s Paris adventures went awry this week when she was involved in a car accident that she’s describing as a frightening close call.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
It inherently asks us to consume these people and needs us to in order to make money, but sometimes consumers want to unhinge their jaws and eat these stars whole, a frightening and unsettling behavior.
From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026
He grew up only 10 blocks from the American Museum of Natural History, where a frightening skull display first captured his imagination.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026
COVID-19 created the conditions in which conspiracy theories flourish: enormous uncertainty, frightening consequences, rapidly changing information and distrust of institutions.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
She drooled a bit, growled sometimes, and just generally looked less like a cute baby and more like the frightening animal she was meant to be.
From "Willodeen" by Katherine Applegate
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.
