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
Fireworks can frighten animals and send them scattering, but Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets apparently are made of sterner stuff.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
He’s a student of life as much as he is filmmaking, a humanist who forges connections with spectacular sights of the things that frighten and fascinate us the most.
From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026
And the fact that Bruce Springsteen kicked off his classic 1978 album “Darkness on the Edge of Town” with a song called “Badlands” would frighten most heartland rock artists away from attempting the same.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
She can’t frighten me any more, I thought.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
I have to admit your creativity frightens me a little.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
What frightens Atash Heil is the uncertainty of what an AI-dominated future might look like - and the speed of the transformation graduates have witnessed during their college years.
From BBC ● Jun. 23, 2026
It frightens me how painfully ironic it feels to cover a film about my industry’s demise when it was “The Devil Wears Prada” that pointed me here in the first place.
From Salon ● May 1, 2026
I’m not here to persuade you to fly if it frightens you that much.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 9, 2026
“It frightens me how much I like it,” Celia finishes, turning her face back to his.
From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern
It was easier to avoid the water than to confront something that had frightened me since childhood.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
His favorite musician is Prince, but when the book begins, he’s too frightened to buy the artist’s new album, “Lovesexy.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
“I was frightened about it,” Ochoa, now 78, who was born in Los Angeles and spoke no Spanish at the time, said in an interview.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 24, 2026
“I was frightened and frenzied, which is what con artists use to get our hard-earned cash.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
It meant she wasn’t nearly as frightened as he’d thought she was.
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
I walk down the street and I see an alarming number of people wearing weighted walking vests now, which is so frightening that it requires me to catch my breath every now and again.
From Slate ● Sep. 6, 2026
He said the team had to avoid frightening the dog to ensure it was brought down to the ground safely during the rescue.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
That is more frightening than stupidity, which can at least be kept out of the meeting.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
Aside from the big, flashy and sometimes frightening game ingredients coming from the train kitchen, there are subtle notes of Australia on every plate.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2026
To make that frightening thought go away, I bring my hand to my chest.
From "Across So Many Seas" by Ruth Behar
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.
