fright
/frait/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
Noun:
- An emotion of sudden, intense fear: "Fright" refers to the feeling of being scared or alarmed, often caused by something unexpected or threatening. It is typically a strong, immediate reaction to perceived danger.
- A state of alarm or terror: It can describe the condition of being frightened.
Verb (archaic/poetic):
- To frighten; to scare: To cause someone to feel fear. This usage is now rare and mostly found in older literary works.
Usage Examples
Noun:
- The loud crash gave her a terrible fright. (The sudden noise caused her to feel intense fear.)
- He turned pale with fright when he saw the shadow. (His face became pale due to fear.)
Verb (archaic):
- "Nothing can fright a true heart." (Nothing can scare a truly brave person.) - Example of poetic usage.
Advanced Usage
"to take fright": to become suddenly frightened.
- The horse took fright at the sound of thunder and bolted. (The horse became scared by the thunder and ran away suddenly.)
Stage fright: Intense nervousness felt by a performer before or during a public appearance. (This is a common compound noun).
- Even experienced actors sometimes suffer from stage fright.
Variants and Related Words
- Frighten (verb): The standard modern verb meaning to cause fear.
- The horror movie frightened the children.
- Frightful (adjective):
- Causing fright; terrifying.
- A frightful scream echoed in the night.
- (Informal) Extreme in degree; very bad.
- We're in a frightful mess.
- Frightfully (adverb): (Informal, chiefly British) Extremely.
- It was frightfully kind of you to help.
Synonyms
- Noun: Fear, terror, alarm, panic, dread, horror.
- Verb (archaic): Frighten, scare, terrify, alarm.
Related Phrasal Verbs/Phrases
- Frighten away/off: To cause someone or something to go away by making them afraid.
- The guard dog frightened away the intruders.
- Frighten into: To scare someone so that they do something.
- The threats frightened him into silence.
Related Idioms
- Look a fright: To look very untidy, messy, or ridiculous in appearance.
- I woke up late and rushed out the door; I must have looked a fright.
- Shake with fright: To tremble visibly because of fear.
- The child was shaking with fright during the storm.
Noun
- an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight)
Verb
- cause fear in
- The stranger who hangs around the building frightens me
- Ghosts could never affright her