frighten

v.

1. To strike with fear

   scare, alarm, terrify, daunt, dismay, cow, terrorize, shock, startle, dishearten, abash, dispirit, throw into a fright, raise apprehension, intimidate, deter, threaten, prey on the mind, badger, petrify, panic, demoralize, give cause for alarm, put in fear, give one a fright, horrify, appall, awe, perturb, disturb, disquiet, faze, discomfort, unnerve, harrow, unman, confound with dread, strike terror into, affright, spook*, frighten out of one's wits*, take one's breath away*, chill to the bone*, make one's hair stand on end*, make one's blood run cold*, make one's flesh creep*, put one's heart in one's mouth*, give one a turn*, scare one stiff*, freeze the blood*, curdle the blood*, scare the daylights out of*.

   Antonyms encourage*, hearten*, reassure. *

2. To drive off, because of alarm

   scare off, scare away, intimidate, discourage, repel, stave off, frighten away, stampede, put to flight, deter, browbeat, bulldoze*.

   Antonyms fascinate*, inveigle*, entice.

frighten is the broadest of these terms and implies, usually, a sudden, temporary feeling of fear frightened by a mouse but sometimes, a state of continued dread she's frightened when she's alone; scare, often equivalent to frighten, often implies a fear that causes one to flee or to stop doing something I scared him from the room; alarm suggests a sudden fear or apprehension at the realization of an approaching danger alarmed by his warning; to terrify is to cause to feel an overwhelming, often paralyzing fear terrified at the thought of war; terrorize implies deliberate intention to terrify by threat or intimidation the gangsters terrorized the city