FRIGHTEN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does frighten mean? 

• FRIGHTEN (verb)
  The verb FRIGHTEN has 1 sense:

1. cause fear in

  Familiarity information: FRIGHTEN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FRIGHTEN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they frighten    ... he / she / it frightens   
Past simple: frightened   
Past participle: frightened   
-ing form: frightening   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cause fear in

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

affright; fright; frighten; scare

Context example:

Ghosts could never affright her

Hypernyms (to "frighten" is one way to...):

excite; shake; shake up; stimulate; stir (stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of)

Cause:

dread; fear (be afraid or scared of; be frightened of)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "frighten"):

bluff (frighten someone by pretending to be stronger than one really is)

awe (inspire awe in)

terrify; terrorise; terrorize (fill with terror; frighten greatly)

intimidate (make timid or fearful)

alarm; appal; appall; dismay; horrify (fill with apprehension or alarm; cause to be unpleasantly surprised)

consternate (fill with anxiety, dread, dismay, or confusion)

spook (frighten or scare, and often provoke into a violent action)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The bad news will frighten him

Also:

frighten away; frighten off (cause to lose courage)

Derivation:

frightening (the act of inspiring with fear)

 Context examples 

I was very much frightened, and said, I hoped so, if he pleased.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The enemy was so frightened when they saw me, that they leaped out of their ships, and swam to shore, where there could not be fewer than thirty thousand souls.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

If Gertrude had been frightened when she arrived, she was now in a panic of fear.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"But I thought all witches were wicked," said the girl, who was half frightened at facing a real witch.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

"Oh, where are you going?" she cried, for his face frightened her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I wouldn’t frighten Kate—poor little Kate.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Then the young prince said, “All this shall not frighten me; I will go and see this Briar Rose.”

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Time and again and many times he ranged the horse up to the gate in the effort to close it and each time the horse became frightened and backed and plunged away.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“I—I confess I hardly do understand,” she hesitated, a perturbed but not frightened expression in her eyes.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It is frightening her to death.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)