| / English Dictionary |
FRIGHTENING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of inspiring with fear
Synonyms:
frightening; terrorisation; terrorization
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("frightening" is a kind of...):
bullying; intimidation (the act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something)
Domain category:
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)
Derivation:
frighten (cause fear in)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Causing fear or dread or terror
Example:
a terrible curse
Synonyms:
awful; dire; direful; dread; dreaded; dreadful; fearful; fearsome; frightening; horrendous; horrific; terrible
Classified under:
Similar:
alarming (frightening because of an awareness of danger)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb frighten
Context examples:
He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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