TERROR

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does terror mean? 

• TERROR (noun)
  The noun TERROR has 4 senses:

1. an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety

2. a person who inspires fear or dread

3. a very troublesome child

4. the use of extreme fear in order to coerce people (especially for political reasons)

  Familiarity information: TERROR used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TERROR (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

affright; panic; terror

Hypernyms ("terror" is a kind of...):

fear; fearfulness; fright (an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "terror"):

swivet (a panic or extreme discomposure)

Derivation:

terrify; terrorise (fill with terror; frighten greatly)

terrorise (coerce by violence or with threats)

terrorist (a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities)

terrorize (fill with terror; frighten greatly)

terrorize (coerce by violence or with threats)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who inspires fear or dread

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

scourge; terror; threat

Context example:

he was the terror of the neighborhood

Hypernyms ("terror" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Derivation:

terrorist (a radical who employs terror as a political weapon; usually organizes with other terrorists in small cells; often uses religion as a cover for terrorist activities)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A very troublesome child

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

brat; holy terror; little terror; terror

Hypernyms ("terror" is a kind of...):

imp; monkey; rapscallion; rascal; scalawag; scallywag; scamp (one who is playfully mischievous)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The use of extreme fear in order to coerce people (especially for political reasons)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

he used terror to make them confess

Hypernyms ("terror" is a kind of...):

coercion (the act of compelling by force of authority)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "terror"):

act of terrorism; terrorism; terrorist act (the calculated use of violence (or the threat of violence) against civilians in order to attain goals that are political or religious or ideological in nature; this is done through intimidation or coercion or instilling fear)

 Context examples 

You may fancy the terror I was in!

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

None can describe its shape or nature, but it is a word of terror along the Amazon.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was alarmed at midnight with the cries of many hundred people at my door; by which, being suddenly awaked, I was in some kind of terror.

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

I only ask you to endure one more night under this roof, Jane; and then, farewell to its miseries and terrors for ever!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

If ever a man was three parts mad with terror, that man’s name is Pinner.

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

Here he stopped, as if for relief from the terrors of his own description.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For centuries the Wild had stood for terror and destruction.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It was fortunate the Tin Woodman had no heart at that moment, for it would have beat loud and fast from terror.

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

I confess that I felt a few sensations of terror.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I knew that there was for the poor beasts no more of terror.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)