terrify
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 5++LDOCE 5++ter·ri·fy /ˈterɪfaɪ/ ●●○ verb (terrified, terrifying, terrifies) [transitive] FRIGHTENEDto make someone extremely afraid 使害怕，使恐惧 Her husband’s violence terrified her. 丈夫的暴力行为让她感到害怕。→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
terrify• The teacher terrified her so much, that she hated going to school.• The idea of going down into the caves terrified her.• It terrified him to think that, in six months time, he would have to stand up in front of a class and teach them something.• My uncle suffers from agoraphobia, and the idea of leaving the house terrifies him.• Speaking in public terrifies me.• They hauled us into a huge corporate office in Capitol; 1,000 people were there and it totally terrified me.Origin terrify (1500-1600) Latin terrificare, from terrificus; → TERRIFICter·ri·fy verbChineseSyllable
to extremely someone Corpus afraid make
terrify
ter‧ri‧fy /ˈterəfaɪ, ˈterɪfaɪ/
verb (past tense and past participle terrified, present participle terrifying, third person singular terrifies) [transitive]to make someone extremely afraid:
Her husband’s violence terrified her.
▪ 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.
ter‧ri‧fy /ˈterəfaɪ, ˈterɪfaɪ/
verb (past tense and past participle terrified, present participle terrifying, third person singular terrifies) [transitive]to make someone extremely afraid: | THESAURUS |
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frighten to make sb feel afraid, often suddenly 指（常突如其来地）使惊吓、使惊恐 ：◆ He brought out a gun and frightened them off. 他掏出一把枪，把他们吓跑了。 scare to make sb feel afraid 指使害怕、使恐惧 ：◆ They managed to scare the bears away. 他们设法把那些熊吓跑了。 alarm to make sb anxious or afraid 指使惊恐、使害怕、使担心 ：◆ It alarms me that nobody takes this problem seriously. 谁都不认真对待这个问题，我非常担心。 NOTE Alarm is used when sb has a feeling that sth unpleasant or dangerous might happen in the future; the feeling is often more one of worry than actual fear.* alarm 指令人担心不好的事情或危险可能发生，多为忧虑而非真的害怕。 terrify to make sb feel extremely afraid 指使恐惧、使十分害怕、使惊吓 ：◆ Flying terrified her. 她害怕坐飞机。
frighten or scare? 用 frighten 还是 scare？
Scare is slightly more informal thanfrighten .* scare 较 frighten 稍非正式。
Patterns
to frighten/scare sb/sth away/off to frighten/scare/terrify sb into doing sthIt frightens/scares/alarms/terrifies methat… It frightens/scares/alarms/terrifies meto think, see, etc.