Other forms: terrified, terrifying, terrifies
To terrify is to frighten somebody very badly. Terrify the children, absolutely terrifying, terrify the horses.
It is at the top of the scale: startle, frighten, scare, terrify. The word is used loosely about spiders and public speaking, and public speaking genuinely does terrify more people than almost anything else when they are surveyed.
1verbterrifyTo frighten somebody very badly.
“Thunderstorms terrify our dog, and she hides under the bed.”
terrify is a frightening.
Latin terrere means to frighten, plus facere, to make. Terror and deter are relatives.
Middle French
terrifier
English, today
terrify
From Middle French terrifier, from Latin - terrificare.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA