Frighten

Definition: Frighten

Frighten

Verb

1. Cause fear in; "The stranger who hangs around the building frightens me".

2. Drive out by frightening.

Date "frighten" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1050. (references)

Note: Frighten \Fright"en\, transitive verb. [Imperative Frightened; present participle verb or noun Frightening.]. (references)

Synonyms: Frighten

Synonyms: affright (v), fright (v), scare (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Fear	Inspire fear, excite fear, inspire awe, excite awe; raise aprehensions; be in a daze, bulldoze; faze, feeze; give an alarm, raise an alarm, sound an alarm; alarm, startle, scare, cry " wolf," disquiet, dismay; fright, frighten, terrify; astound; fright from one's propriety; fright out of one's senses, fright out of one's wits, fright out of one's seven senses; awe; strike all of a heap, strike an awe into, strike terror; harrow up the soul, appall, unman, petrify, horrify; pile on the agony.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Frighten

English words defined with "frighten": Affear, Affrighten ♦ bird-scarer, bluff, Bo, bogeyman, booger, boogeyman, browbeat, bugaboo, bugbear, bully ♦ cross one's eyes ♦ Effray ♦ -en ♦ Gally, Gast, gunfight, gunplay ♦ Lowbell ♦ Rawhead ♦ scarecrow, scarer, shootout, spook, squinch, squint, strawman, swagger ♦ terrify, terrorise, terrorize, To scare up. (references)

Specialty definitions using "frighten": Coral Beads ♦ Hawk, Huniades, Hunniades ♦ Masche-croute. (references)

Etymologies containing "frighten": terror. (references)

Domain

Usage

Screenplays

Shh! Do you want to frighten our little daughter (Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles; writing credit: Anne Rice)

Does the sound of guns frighten you that much (High Noon; writing credit: Carl Foreman)

Tell me, Hilda, does all this frighten you (The Day the Earth Stood Still; writing credit: Harry Bates; Edmund H. North)

If my answers frighten you then you should cease asking scary questions (Pulp Fiction; writing credit: Quentin Tarantino; Roger Avary)

They frighten me. (Dick Tracy; writing credit: Jim Cash)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	A Student's Guide to Accounting for Lawyers, Or, Numbers Frighten Me, Just Give Me the Bottom Line (Student Guide Series) (reference) Animals That Frighten People: Fact Versus Myth, (reference) Don't Frighten the Lion! (reference) Frighten the Horses and Other Plays (reference) It Didn't Frighten Me (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Frighten Friday (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	A bull sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) doesn't agree that Coast Surveyors should land on his rock. Waving flare in vain attempting to frighten him off Crew off of Coast and Geodetic Survey Ship PIONEER. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.		Carey Judson, I declare you frighten me : you look as guilty as a hen house thief. Credit: Library of Congress.
	Uncle Sam: No, you can't frighten me with that!. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Play	Caption
	Scream; terror; fright; yell; frightened; frighten; scare; scary; frightening; fear; alarm; spook; terrorize.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Colton	Bigotry murders religion to frighten fools with her ghost.
Mrs. Patrick Campbell	Does it really matter what these affectionate people do -- so long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses!
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	They two by themselves will frighten the banlieue
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Worker Rights	Russia	Victims also were threatened with violence and told they were in violation of local law to frighten them away from local law enforcement. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

"Frighten" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 81.96% of the time. "Frighten" is used about 438 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	81.96%	359	15,003
Lexical Verb (base form)	17.81%	78	37,656
Unclassified Items	0.23%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	438	N/A

Expressions using "frighten": frighten away ♦ frighten off ♦ frighten smb. into of doing smth. ♦ frighten smb. out of doing smth. ♦ frighten smb. out of his senses ♦ frighten smb. out of his wits ♦ frighten smb. to death. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "frighten"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		frikësoj (affright, appal, appall, bluff, browbeat, cow, dismay, fright, funk, intimidate, scare), frikësohem (be afraid, be frightened, be horrified, dread), tremb (dismay, give a start, intimidate, scare, shoo, startle). (various references)

Arabic		‏ذعر (alarm, be astonished, consternation, creep, flap, panic, terror, terrorization, trepidation), ‏خوف (browbeat, bully, dread, fear, fright, frightfulness, give a scare, horror, panic, put the wind up, scare, terror, trepidation), ‏إرتعب (be horrified), ‏أرعب (alarm, appal, appall, daunt, dismay, fright, horrify, intimidate, panic, stagger, terrorize). (various references)

Bulgarian		стресвам (rouse), подплашвам (give smb. a scare, jump, rouse, scare, warn away), плаша (affright, intimidate, scare, terrify), изплашвам (alarm, rouse, scare, scarring, start, startle, stun, warn away). (various references)

Chinese		恫 , 使駭怕 , 吓唬 (frightened). (various references)

Czech		polekat (appal, scare, start, startle). (various references)

Danish		forskrække (alarm, terrify). (various references)

Dutch		schrik aanjagen (terrify), doen schrikken (terrify). (various references)

Esperanto		timigi, teruri (terrify). (various references)

Faeroese		ræða (alarm). (various references)

Finnish		säikyttää (scare, startle), pelottaa (deter, fill with awe, inspire with fear, intimidate, scare, startle, terrify), pelästyttää (scare). (various references)

French		effrayer. (various references)

Frisian		bang meitsje (terrify). (various references)

German		erschrecken (affright, appal, be frightened, be startled, dismay, give a shock, give a start, horrify, make jump, scare, start, startle, terrify, to frighten, to horrify, to scare), einschüchtern (alarm, browbeat, daunt, hector, intimidate, overawe, soften up, terrorize, to browbeat, to daunt, to frighten, to intimidate, to overawe), ängstigen (alarm, perturb, to alarm, to frighten, worry). (various references)

Greek		φοβίζω (affright, astound, awe, browbeat, cow, scare, terrify), τρομάζω (alarm, appal, cow, daunt, dismay, funk, horrify, intimidate, petrify, scare, startle, terrify). (various references)

Hebrew		לפחד (apprehend, be afraid, be scared, fear), לעלף (cause to faint, faint), לערוץ (intimidate, terrify), להפחיד (browbeat, bully, cow, daunt, dismay, put the wind up, scare, terrify), להבהיל (alarm, scare, startle), להטיל אימה (intimidate, overawe, terrorize), הפחיד. (various references)

Hungarian		megriaszt (to scare, to shock), megijeszt (affright, aghast, daunt, give one the creeps, intimidate, scare, sit up, startle, terrify, to afear, to alarm, to cow, to daunt, to dismay, to fright, to frighten, to haze, to spook, to terrify). (various references)

Indonesian		menggentari, mempergentar, gera (threaten). (various references)

Italian		spaventare (alarm, be frightened, deter, discourage, get scared, scare, startle), sgomentare (be frightened, dismay, unnerve), intimorire (be frightened, cow, intimidate), impaurire (be scared, deter, discourage, get frightened, scare), atterrire (appal, appall, be terrified, dare, horrify, scare, terrify). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		震駭させる (to frighten, to shock, to terrify), 驚かす (to create a stir, to frighten, to surprise). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		おどろかす (to create a stir, to frighten, to surprise), しんがいさせる (to frighten, to shock, to terrify). (various references)

Korean		두려워하게 하십시요. (various references)

Manx		scoaghey (alarm, intimidate), cur raaue da (alarm, caution, warn), cur atchim er (awe), cur aggle er (alarm, daunt, terrorize). (various references)

Maya		sahahkuunt (to frighten). (various references)

Norwegian		skremme (intimidate, scare). (various references)

Pig Latin		ightenfray.(various references)

Portuguese		aterrorizar (awe, funk, terrify, terrorize), amedrontar (appal, appall, awe, browbeat, hector, imtimidate, scare, terrify). (various references)

Romanian		speria (affright, alarm, cow, deter, discourage, funk, horrify, scare, shake, shy, start, terrify). (various references)

Russian		пугать (affright, alarm, appal, dismay, give the chills, intimidate, scare, scares, scaring). (various references)

Scottish		rotach (a circle of flith on one's clothes, a hand rattle to frighten cattle, a rush at starting, rough weather). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		zastrašivati (affright, bully), zastrašiti (browbeat, intimidate), uplašiti (scare), preplašiti (overawe), prepasti (attack), plašiti se (be afraid, dread, fear, funk), plašiti (fear). (various references)

Spanish		espantar (appal, appall, deter, discourage, dismay, frighten off, horrify, scare, scare away, scare off, shoo, terrify), asustar (affright, alarm, scare, startle). (various references)

Swedish		skrämma (alarm, appal, appall, browbeat, bulldoze, cow, daunt, fright, horrify, intimidate, overawe, scare, spook, startle, terrify), skärra upp, avskräcka (choke off, deter, discountenance, discourage, intimidate). (various references)

Thai		เขย่าขวัญ, หวาดกลัว. (various references)

Turkish		korkutmak (administer a shock, affright, alarm, appal, appall, awe, bulldoze, cow, daunt, dismay, fright, funk, horrify, intimidate, overawe, scare, startle, terrorize, threaten), dehşete düşürmek (appal, appall, curdle one's blood, dismay, funk, horrify, shock, terrify, terrorize), ödünü patlatmak (frighten smb. to death, terrify). (various references)

Turkmen		ьrkьzmek (scare). (various references)

Ukrainian		лякати (affray, affright, appal, appall, consternate, daunt, fray, intimidate, panic, scare, shy). (various references)

Welsh		gwylltio (enrage, fly into a passion), dychrynu (affright, alarm, be frightened), dychryn (alarm, fright, terror), brawychu (affright, appall, terrify). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	consternabatur, consternata, consternatae, consternatique, consternatus, terreamini, terreat, terrebant, terreberis, terrebis, terrebit, terrebunt, terrere, terrerent, terreret, terribiliter, territi, territo, territus, terruerunt, terruit. (various references)
Middle English	1100-1500	fesen. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language	Date	Source	Jeremiah Chapter 7, Verse 33
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Kai esontai oi nekroi tou laou toutou eiV brwsin toiV peteinoiV tou ouranou kai toiV qhrioiV thV ghV kai ouk estai o aposobwn
Latin	405	Vulgate	Et erit morticinum populi huius in cibum volucribus caeli et bestiis terrae et non erit qui abigat
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	And ben shal the moreyn of this puple in to mete to the foules of heuene, and to the bestus of erthe; and ther shal not be that dryue awey.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	And the carcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	And the bodies of this people will be food for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth; and there will be no one to send them away.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	Jeremiah Chapter 7, Verse 33
Cebuano	Ug ang mga minatay niini nga katawohan mahimong kalan-on sa mga langgam sa kalangitan, ug sa mga mananap sa yuta; ug walay makapahadlok kanila.
Croatian	A mrtva tijela ovoga naroda bit æe hrana pticama nebeskim i zvjeradi zemaljskoj, i nitko se neæe naæi da ih poplaši i otjera.
Danish	Og dette Folks Lig skal blive Himmelens Fugle og Jordens Dyr til Æde, og ingen skal skræmme dem bort.
Dutch	En de dode lichamen dezes volks zullen het gevogelte des hemels, en het gedierte der aarde tot spijze zijn, en niemand zal ze afschrikken.
Finnish	Ja tämän kansan ruumiit joutuvat taivaan lintujen ja maan eläinten ruuaksi, eikä näitä kukaan karkoita.
French	Les cadavres de ce peuple seront la pâture Des oiseaux du ciel et des bêtes de la terre; Et il n`y aura personne pour les troubler.
German	Und die Leichname dieses Volkes sollen den Vögeln des Himmels und den Tieren auf Erden zur Speise werden, davon sie niemand scheuchen wird.
Haitian Creole	Kadav moun yo va sèvi manje pou zwazo nan syèl ak bèt nan bwa. P'ap gen pesonn pou pouse bèt yo ale.
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Mayat-mayat mereka akan menjadi makanan burung dan binatang buas, tanpa ada yang mengusiknya.
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Sehingga segala bangkai bangsa ini menjadi makanan unggas yang di udara dan mangsa segala margasatwa, maka seorangpun tiada yang akan menghalaukan dia.
Italian	I cadaveri di questo popolo saranno pasto agli uccelli dell'aria e alle bestie selvatiche e nessuno li scaccerà.
Maori	A ka waiho nga tinana o tenei iwi hei kai ma nga manu o te rangi, ma nga kararehe o te whenua; kahore hoki he kaiwhakawehi atu.
Norwegian	Og dette folks døde kropper skal bli til føde for himmelens fugler og for jordens dyr, uten at nogen skremmer dem bort.
Portuguese	E os cadáveres deste povo servirão de pasto às aves do céu e aos animais da terra; e ninguém os enxotará.
Rumanian	Trupurile moarte ale acestui popor vor fi hrana pqsqrilor cerului wi a fiarelor pqmkntului; wi nimeni nu le va speria.
Spanish	Los cadáveres de este pueblo servirán de comida a las aves del cielo y a los animales de la tierra, y no habrá quien los espante.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "frighten": frightened, frightening, frighteningly, frightens. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Frighten" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: fighten, frighted, Frohlen, fwighted. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "frighten" (pronounced frī"tun)
5	-r ī" t u n	brighten, Triton.
4	-ī" t u n	enlighten, heighten, lighten, tighten, Titan, whiten.
3	-t u n	fatten, actin, badminton, batten, beaten, begotten, biotin, bitten, Boston, boughten, Bouton, bulletin, Burton, button, Canton, capstan, captain, carton, certain, charlatan, chieftain, clandestine, cosmopolitan, cotton, craton, curtain, Dalton, dentin, dishearten, eaten, exoskeleton, flatten, forgotten, fountain, frostbitten, gelatin, gluten, gotten, guncotton, handwritten, hearten, highfalutin, intermountain, intestine, jetton, kindergarten, kitten, litten, lovastatin, Manhattan, marten, Martin, Melton, metropolitan, misbegotten, mitten, molten, mountain, mutton, nekton, Newton, overwritten, Parton, Patten, phytoplankton, piston, plankton, plantain, platen, pleasing, ponton, predestine, prolactin, puritan, rewritten, rotten, Samaritan, satin, Seton, Sexton, shorten, Singleton, skeleton, smitten, spartan, straighten, sultan, sweeten, tartan, teston, threaten, tungsten, typewritten, unbeaten, unbutton, uncertain, underwritten, unwritten, verboten, wanton, wheaten, written.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "e-f-g-h-i-n-r-t"
	-1 letter: fighter, freight, hefting, refight.
	-2 letters: engirt, feting, finger, fright, fringe, hinger, hinter, nigher.
	-3 letters: eight, feign, feint, fight, finer, firth, frith, girth, grief, grift, grith, hinge, inert, infer, inter, ither, neigh, night, niter, nitre, refit, reign, renig, right, thegn, thein, their, thief, thine, thing, tiger, tinge, trine.
	-4 letters: fern, fine, fire, firn, fret, frig.
	Words containing the letters "e-f-g-h-i-n-r-t"
	+1 letter: fathering, frightens, infighter.
	+2 letters: feathering, freighting, frightened, furthering, gunfighter, infighters, refighting.
	+3 letters: etherifying, farthingale, featherings, flichtering, frightening, gunfighters.
	+4 letters: farthingales, firefighting, forgathering, freethinking, godfathering, rightfulness.
	+5 letters: airfreighting, featheredging, firefightings, flugelhornist, foregathering, fortnightlies, freethinkings, frighteningly, frightfulness, prizefighting, thermoforming.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

Expression	Frequency per Day
frighten	12
doesn easily frighten holder laurence t	5
life doesn t frighten me at all	3
angelou doesn frighten life maya t	2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Frighten

Definition: Frighten

Frighten

Verb

Synonyms: Frighten

Synonyms within Context: Frighten

Fear

Crosswords: Frighten

Modern Usage: Frighten

Screenplays

Commercial Usage: Frighten

Books

Music

Image Slideshow: Frighten

Illustrations:Frighten

Computer Images:Frighten

Photo Album: Frighten

Digital Photo Gallery: Frighten

Sounds Captioned with "Frighten".

Familiar Quotations: Frighten

Colton

Mrs. Patrick Campbell

Use in Literature: Frighten

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Non-Fiction Usage: Frighten

Usage Frequency: Frighten

Expressions: Frighten

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Frighten

Modern Translation: Frighten

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

Esperanto

Faeroese

Finnish

French

Frisian

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Korean

Manx

Maya

Norwegian

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Scottish

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Thai

Turkish

Turkmen

Ukrainian

Welsh

Ancestral Language Translations: Frighten

Bible Trace: Frighten

Matched Bible Translations: Frighten

Derivations & Misspellings: Frighten

Derivations

Misspellings

Rhyming with "Frighten"

Anagrams: Frighten

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

INDEX

Illustrations:
Frighten

Computer Images:
Frighten