frighten

frighten, fright, scare, alarm, terrify, terrorize, startle, affray, affright mean to strike or to fill with fear or dread.

Frighten is perhaps the most frequent in use; it is the most inclusive, for it may range in implicaton from a momentary reaction to a stimulus to a state of mind in which fear or dread prevails. Typically, however, it implies a more or less paralyzing fear affecting either the body or the will

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the silence of the house . . .frightened Clara—Anderson

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in the world too frightened to be honest— T. S. Eliot

}

Fright is an older and chiefly literary or dialect form of frighten

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you have death perpetually before your eyes, only so far removed as to compose the mind without frighting it— Gray

}

In informal and conversational use scare is often equivalent to frighten; in more formal use it usually implies fear that causes one to run, shy, or tremble

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sour visages, enough to scare ye—Gray

}

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a noise did scare me from the tomb— Shak.

}

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earth shakes beneath them, and heaven roars above; but nothing scares them from the course they love— Cowper

}

Alarm in the relevant sense (compare ALARM n 1) nearly always stresses apprehension or anxiety

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they are alarmed for his safety

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the girl was . . . alarmed by the altogether unknown expression in the woman's face— Conrad

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Terrify emphasizes intensity of fear and agitation; it usually suggests a state of mind in which self-control or self-direction is impossible

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they were terrified out of their wits

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the dread of failure terrified them

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something in his face and in his voice terrified her heart— Hichens

}

Terrorize, in distinction from terrify, implies the effect of an intention and therefore is used in reference to voluntary agents; thus, one may say that gangs terrorized the neighborhood by their constant depredations and that the depredations of the gangs terrified the neighborhood. Terrorize often implies coercion or intimidation

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terrorize a people into submission

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he delighted in terrorizing the guests by his bullying— Burkholder

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Startle implies surprise and a sudden shock that causes one to jump or flinch; occasionally its suggestion of fright is very weak

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one learns in parish work not to start, however much one may be startled— Rose Macaulay

}

{

investigations of scientists . . . sprung on a public shocked and startled by the revelation that facts which they were accustomed to revere were conspicuously at fault— Galsworthy

}

Affray and affright are uncommon in modern use, the former, as a rule, coming close to terrify and the latter, to frighten.

Analogous words: appall, horrify, *dismay, daunt: *intimidate, cow, browbeat, bulldoze: agitate, perturb, upset, disquiet, *discompose