Definition

1. Verb:
   • To threaten; to menace: To express an intention to cause harm, pain, or trouble to someone.
   • To frighten; to scare; to intimidate: To cause someone to feel fear, often suddenly or as a means of control, using words or actions.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Nó dọa sẽ báo cảnh sát. (He threatened to call the police.)
  • Đừng dọa tôi như thế! (Don't scare me like that!)
  • Cô ấy dọa đứa trẻ bằng một con rắn đồ chơi. (She frightened the child with a toy snake.)

Advanced Usage

• "dọa dẫm": To threaten repeatedly or habitually; to use intimidation.
  • Hắn ta thích dọa dẫm người khác để đạt mục đích. (He likes to intimidate others to get what he wants.)
• "dọa nạt": Similar to "dọa dẫm," meaning to threaten or bully.
  • Bắt nạt và dọa nạt bạn học là không thể chấp nhận. (Bullying and threatening classmates is unacceptable.)

Variants and Related Words

• Đe dọa (v): A more formal synonym for "to threaten" or "to menace," often implying a serious danger.
  • Hành động đó đe dọa đến an ninh quốc gia. (That action threatens national security.)
• Hù dọa (v): To startle or scare someone suddenly, often as a joke.
  • Anh ta nhảy ra hù dọa tôi. (He jumped out to startle me.)

Synonyms

• Threaten: To state an intention to harm.
• Frighten: To cause fear.
• Intimidate: To make someone feel frightened or less confident, especially to force them to do something.
• Scare: To cause sudden fear or alarm.

Related Idioms

• Dọa ma: Literally "to scare (someone with) a ghost." It means to use an empty threat or to try to frighten someone with something that is not real or not serious.
  • Lời cảnh báo của hắn chỉ là dọa ma thôi. (His warning was just an empty threat.)
• Dọa cho chừa: To scare someone (as a lesson) so they stop a bad behavior.
  • Tôi phải dọa nó một phen cho chừa thói nói dối. (I had to give him a good scare to cure him of his lying habit.)

verb

1. to menace; to intimidate