verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
force/frighten/beat etc sb into submission
▪ Napoleon threatened to starve the country into submission.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
away
▪ But his presence has failed to frighten away the opposition and 11 runners have stood their ground at the five-day declaration stage.
▪ The extremist characterization frightened away mainstream civil rights organizations, which made Hampton even more vulnerable to attack.
▪ To frighten away thieves and bring fertility.
▪ Guns are shot into the branches to frighten away evil spirits.
▪ He frightened away the best of our health.
more
▪ He was cold, but he was more frightened than cold.
▪ And the more frightened I became, the angrier I grew.
▪ When she dies I think she is going to be more frightened than she expects.
▪ The Raiders can hardly imagine a more frightening sight.
▪ But Daphne flew on, even more frightened than before.
▪ Anthony Hopkins was much more frightening as a serial killer than Currie is as the son of Satan.
▪ But each day the voices returned, Marsha grew more frightened.
most
▪ Most frightening of all, no one knew how you got it.
▪ That was probably the most frightened I had been.
▪ Most frightening of all is the time scale.
▪ The letter H became the most frightening in the alphabet.
▪ I was most frightened by not knowing what made me afraid.
off
▪ His success in the fraudulent libel action against the Star newspaper undoubtedly frightened off a lot of the media.
▪ I was merely about to fire a blank to frighten off some stray cats.
▪ Al Jourgensen is seen wandering around the hotel foyer hugging a wooden duck, used to frighten off local wildlife.
▪ Tethered in the field, it hovers above the crop and frightens off pigeons, rooks and crows.
▪ It is the fear of frightening off investors that has stopped the government investing in water quality.
▪ The Spice Girl has told pals that Dan, of the group Tomcat, was frightened off by her ten tattoos.
▪ Your baby must have frightened off the intruder.
really
▪ Dad steadied the bottom of the ladder but it still swung about a bit which really frightened me.
▪ The consequences for the financial future of the nation and even of the world are really frightening.
▪ I was really frightened they would hurt each other.
▪ The Great Slayer really frightened me.
so
▪ When the Blefuscans saw me, they were so frightened that they jumped out of their ships and swam to the beach.
▪ The prospects of this change so frightened local businesses that they pushed the state Legislature to make the initiative illegal.
▪ Dad was so frightened to go.
▪ When he sees Queequeg enter, he is frightened so much that he can do nothing but observe him.
▪ The girl was so frightened by this that she opened the door herself.
▪ If I am alone in a room, I get so frightened I start to shake.
▪ Susan was so frightened of being alone, that she would not go to sleep, in case we left her.
▪ He strained backward and he was so frightened that they had a difficult time holding him.
too
▪ She was too frightened to struggle.
▪ We were too frightened to talk.
▪ He was too frightened to tell police.
▪ They are simply too frightened, Muratovic said.
▪ She is too frightened, too tense, like a coiled creature ready to do harm.
▪ Jerry and I are too frightened and too young to take part.
▪ This time, she said, she was too frightened to venture in, in case the thieves were still there.
▪ The girl was too frightened to move.
very
▪ At the beginning I was very frightened.
▪ It had now become a very frightening ride, and chills began to run through me.
▪ She reassured me, as I was very frightened, and was kindness itself.
▪ But that just made it a very frightening experience.
▪ Suddenly Jane was very frightened - for herself, for Mousa, and for her unborn child.
▪ I get very frightened when I think about it....
▪ Bruno was tall and naturally pale; more so now because he was also very frightened.
▪ Is it reasonable to be very frightened of a crash when the chances are one in one thousand that it will happen?
■ NOUN
child
▪ I was never aware of being frightened as a child because I saw his fits many times.
▪ He in turn saw the waiting women, the frightened children, the solitary oak and the drinking soldiers.
▪ Male speaker I fear for Birmingham with this madman let loose, wandering around the streets frightening the children.
▪ She seemed frightened of the other children and avoided them for the initial part of free play.
▪ This is just a fable to frighten the children with a bit of free preaching thrown in.
▪ He cut his school off from the outside world so that nobody would see how cowed and frightened the children were.
▪ I wonder if the children in the engang are frightened.
▪ Egan recognizes the frightening ability children have to hurt their parents.
death
▪ It frightened me to death if you want to know.
▪ He never understood the fools who paid to frighten themselves to death.
▪ Even if a Black girl has nothing on her, it frightens her to death.
▪ It soon went too fast for him and the village pastor who appeared from the other direction was nearly frightened to death!
life
▪ Polly had never been so frightened in her life.
▪ In the first place, the opinion polls frightened the life out of everyone.
▪ One victim, who asked not to be named, said he was frightened for his life.
▪ But, as I predicted last Sunday, it frightened the life out of everyone at Smith Square.
▪ Although acquitted, he was frightened for his life.
▪ Of course, it frightened the life out of him.
▪ It frightened the life out of them.
people
▪ And it's frightening to some people.
▪ Television news, in other words, tends to frighten people.
▪ They think it was a trick by the Garda or the judges to frighten people and teach them a lesson.
▪ You are no longer frightened of certain people, situations or possible problems.
▪ Instead he frightens people with Hell every Sabbath.
▪ Although equations are a concise and accurate way of describing mathematical ideas, they frighten most people.
▪ They don't go around trying to frighten people just for pleasure.
▪ Why did he have to frighten people so much?
wit
▪ Knowing the cat as well as she did, Mildred could see that, despite its size, it was frightened out of its wits.
▪ Maura, tears running down her face, was frightened out of her wits.
▪ There is a beautiful little iron-grey mare here that Alejandro has frightened out of her wits and says is too wet for polo.
■ VERB
become
▪ It had now become a very frightening ride, and chills began to run through me.
▪ These children almost see too much: they are so aware of what they see that they become frightened or overwhelmed.
▪ He wore sinister rimless spectacles, and had the potential to become frightening.
▪ The Republicans, by the 1940s, were becoming frightened.
▪ He became greatly frightened at this and made many motions to Dorothy to relieve him, but she could not understand.
▪ The letter H became the most frightening in the alphabet.
feel
▪ Patients can feel insecure and frightened in this new environment and anxiety increases the risk of accident.
▪ Poor little thing, she would be feeling so lonely and frightened, and Jean's kind heart went out to her.
▪ Women who have never heard that such a response is not only possible but normal feel guilty and frightened.
▪ Daniel looked at the angry sea with its terrible waves, and he felt cold and frightened.
▪ They didn't know what she was talking about but they could feel she was frightened.
▪ He felt both elated and frightened.
▪ We lose our temper, feel cornered and frightened, it can be the work of an instant.
seem
▪ He hadn't seemed frightened and he hadn't seemed sullen.
▪ She seemed frightened of the other children and avoided them for the initial part of free play.
▪ I tried to look very understanding, very sympathetic, but it seemed to frighten him.
▪ Hannah had been slow to warm up to her father and initially seemed frightened by him.
▪ Nowadays food can seem like a frightening health hazard.
▪ At first he seemed frightened, but after a while he started spending almost every Saturday there.
try
▪ It is as if they are trying to frighten us out of doing our job.
▪ He also made the mistake of trying to frighten the miners with the consequence of sticking to existing conditions.
▪ He was trying to frighten them.
▪ They will try to frighten voters back to the two old parties.
▪ Harriet thought that Ben was trying to frighten Paul, but Paul was hysterical.
▪ They don't go around trying to frighten people just for pleasure.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
afraid/frightened/scared etc of your own shadow
be a (beautiful/strange/frightening etc) sight to behold
frighten/scare the life out of sb
▪ When, however-many years later-the script finally did arrive, two things scared the life out of me.
frighten/scare/terrify sb out of their wits
scare/frighten the (living) daylights out of sb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Does the thought of death frighten you?
▪ Film-makers have always known that one way to capture an audience is to frighten it out of its wits.
▪ It frightens me to know that the rapist still hasn't been caught.
▪ Melissa spun round to see Eddie standing behind her. "You frightened the daylights out me!" she gasped. "I never heard you come in."
▪ Take that silly mask off -- you're frightening the children.
▪ The driver was frightened by the shots.
▪ The man pulled out a gun and managed to frighten off his attackers.
▪ Their lawyers tried to frighten us into signing the contract.
▪ Travis, you just frighten the dog when you play that music.
▪ What are you doing creeping up on me like that? You frightened the life out of me!
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He was broke and he was frightened.
▪ I think she was frightened to be too strict.
▪ I wasn't frightened of it.
▪ Many couples have been frightened by questionable results.
▪ Now he could imagine children being frightened of it.