English Explanatory Dictionary

frighten

English dictionary entry

Meanings

verb
  1. To cause to feel fear; to scare; to cause to feel alarm or fright.
  2. To become scared or alarmed.

Pronunciation

/ˈfɹaɪ.tən/ [ˈfɹ̥aɪtn̩] [ˈfɹ̥aɪʔn̩] en-us-frighten.ogg

Word forms

frighten frightens frightening frightened freighten

Etymology

From Middle English *frightenen, equivalent to fright + -en.

Synonyms

alarm affright appall dismay fray frighten grill give someone the shits harrow horrify make someone's blood run cold mortify petrify scare scare straight scare the bejeebers out of scare the hell out of scare the pants off of scare the shit out of terrorize terrify spook

Related words

fright afraid coward disheartening fear nervous asustar

Derived words

do someone a frighten frightenable frightener frightening frightensome frighten the horses frighten the life out of someone frighten the piss out of overfrighten unfrighten
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on F Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary