1. fill with horror; shock greatly:"they were horrified by the very idea"Similarfrightenscareterrifypetrifyalarmpanicterrorizescare stiffscare/frighten to deathfill with fearscare someone out of their witsscare/frighten the living daylights out ofthrow into a panicmake someone's hair stand on endmake someone's blood run coldinformal:scare the pants offmake someone's hair curlthrow into a blue funkput the wind upscare the bejesus out ofspookvulgar slang:scare shitlessscare the shit out ofarchaic:affrightshockappaloutragescandalizeoffenddismaythrow off balancedisgustrevoltrepelnauseatesickeninformal:rattlefazeknock sidewaysknock for sixarchaic:potherOppositeplease
Word Originlate 18th century: from Latin horrificare, from horrificus (see horrific).
