terrify
[verb]
Synonyms: frighten, alarm, appal, horrify, make one's hair stand on end, scare, shock, terrorize

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Related Idioms: put the fear of God into, *scare shitless, strike fear into the heart of
Related Words: freeze, paralyze, petrify, stun, stupefy

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English Thesaurus: fear, terror, fright, panic, alarm, ...

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

ter‧ri‧fy /ˈterəfaɪ, ˈterɪfaɪ/ 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.

[TahlilGaran] Dictionary of Contemporary English ▲

fear a feeling of being frightened:
He was trembling with fear.
Fear of failure should not stop you trying.
terror a feeling of great fear, because you think that something terrible is about to happen:
She let out a scream of pure terror.
fright a sudden feeling of fear, or a situation that makes you feel this:
My body was shaking with fright.
You gave me a fright!
He’s had a bit of fright, that’s all.
panic a sudden feeling of fear or nervousness that makes you unable to think clearly or behave sensibly:
She was in such a panic that she hardly knew what she was doing!
There were scenes of sheer panic immediately following the bomb blast.
alarm a feeling of fear or worry which shows in your voice or behaviour, because you think something bad might happen:
When I mentioned her name, he looked up at me in alarm.
The streets were calm and there was no sign of alarm.
foreboding /fɔːˈbəʊdɪŋ $ fɔːrˈboʊ-/ a feeling that something bad or unpleasant might happen although there is no obvious reason why it should:
She felt the same sense of foreboding she had before her father died.
phobia /ˈfəʊbiə $ ˈfoʊ-/ a permanent strong unreasonable fear of something:
I had a phobia about going to the dentist.
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.
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.
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.
The noise startled him, and he dropped his glass on the floor.
intimidate to deliberately frighten someone, especially so that they will do what you want:
Many of the gangs were using dogs to intimidate people.

[TahlilGaran] English 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.
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.
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.
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.

[TahlilGaran] English Thesaurus ▲