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What is "terrifying"

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
terrifying
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a terrifying ordeal
▪ Bruce Gordon has described his terrifying ordeal in a shark attack.
terrifying
▪ Driving through London in a strange car was a terrifying prospect.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
most
▪ When you walked along it, it swung from side to side in a most terrifying fashion.
▪ And it is still considered the most terrifying experience of many people's lives.
▪ For the most terrifying fighting man in the world?
▪ The most terrifying ants of all are those that make no nest but wander through the countryside seeking prey.
▪ By contrast, his son James V was the most terrifying of his line; but he was no less successful.
■ NOUN
experience
▪ It took him more than 30 years before he told anyone other than friends of his terrifying experience.
▪ She wrote a long and moving letter, describing her terrifying experience of being raped whilst on holiday with two friends.
▪ And it is still considered the most terrifying experience of many people's lives.
▪ For a child of five this was a terrifying experience, although it was meant to be a birthday treat.
▪ He knew enough psychology to have at least some insight into what those early shaming and terrifying experiences had done to her.
▪ Without love it would be a terrifying experience.
▪ This, as you can imagine, was a terrifying experience, and memories of my hospital stay still frighten me.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ I opened my eyes, and tried to banish the terrifying images of the plane falling from the sky, and crashing into the sea.
▪ It had been a terrifying ordeal, but now, at last, he was free.
▪ Spending a night in jail was a terrifying experience.
▪ There was a terrifying crash, and the house seemed to shake.
▪ They stopped me, and I saw that they had a gun. It was terrifying.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And beneath his feet Hencke could hear the terrifying noise of water beginning to slop its way through the bilges.
▪ In the morning the mad excitement was over, and the dreadful memory of his crime returned - more terrifying than ever.
▪ It took him more than 30 years before he told anyone other than friends of his terrifying experience.
▪ Smoke poured from the main bedroom window, and there were terrifying reports as the glass cracked in the heat.
▪ The heat, the insects, and the debilitating claustrophobia of those few terrifying days often returned to haunt him.
▪ The senior one was a fearsome, mustachioed amateur cello player who addressed every class in a terrifying bawl.
▪ Thus is the citizen beset by the vision of a terrifying Trinity - Unaccountability, Inaccessibility and Unintelligibility.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Terrifying

Terrify \Ter"ri*fy\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Terrified; p. pr. & vb. n. Terrifying.] [L. terrere to frighten + -fy: cf. F. terrifier, L. terrificare. See Terrific, and -fy.]

  1. To make terrible. [Obs.]

    If the law, instead of aggravating and terrifying sin, shall give out license, it foils itself.
    --Milton.

  2. To alarm or shock with fear; to frighten.

    When ye shall hear of wars . . . be not terrified.
    --Luke xxi. 9.

Wiktionary
terrifying

  1. 1 frightening or intimidating. 2 Of a formidable nature; terrific v

  2. (present participle of terrify English)

WordNet
terrifying

adj. causing extreme terror; "a terrifying wail" [syn: terrific]

Usage examples of "terrifying".

It was like seeing a reflection of her own soul – dizzying, confusing, almost terrifying, for Catlin was very much unlike anyone she had ever known, especially herself.

Silently she endured it all, the sweating and the cramps, the darkness and the nightmare, the blank emptiness that awaited her with such terrifying patience.

She didn’t hear anything but the echoes of her own terrifying decision to go back to Broken Mountain.

This was what she wanted to capture in a sketch—the tender, terrifying moment when the virgin bud came apart and offered itself to the sun.

The light would help her in the first terrifying instants when she was still gripped by nightmare.

After a few moments she turned toward him as though she sensed at some unconscious level that he was safety in the midst of her terrifying dream.

Yet it wasn’t the blow to her head that drained her, it was the need to stave off the terrifying blackness of her unremembered dreams.

Even so, they were still clumsy, stiff from the terrifying time she had spent in the mine, digging frantically through rubble for something far more valuable than gold.

The bear was reared up on its hind legs, taller than Whip, wider, terrifying in its strength.

Her enigmatic smile could have come from agony or ecstasy or a beautiful, terrifying combination of both.

Justin and Lawe had managed to bring the skiff back to shore right side up, but it had been a terrifying experience for her.

Not far above her face, the transparent hatch cover showed nothing more than the silver torrent of moonlight that had made the last hour of their journey easier for Jake and more terrifying for her.

Summer was still smiling at him, charming and terrifying him with her innocent certainty of his worth and her own safety with him.

What do I know that Factoid can’t find in his databases or his terrifying brain?

And soon people are dying all around Risa and Shane, as the wrong hands reach out for a remarkable golden treasure wrapped in a terrifying conundrum that dates back to the time of the Druids.