fright
Plural: frights
Noun
- an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight)
- A state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm.
- Someone strange, ugly or shocking, producing a feeling of alarm or aversion.
Verb
Verb Forms: frighted, frighting, frights
- To frighten or cause sudden, intense fear to someone.
- cause fear in
- "The stranger who hangs around the building frightens me"
- "Ghosts could never affright her"
- To frighten.
Adj
- frightened; afraid; affright
Examples
- The double-triple score was enough to fright his opponent into challenging his next valid word.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English fright, furht, from Old English fryhtu, fyrhto (“fright, fear, dread, trembling, horrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *furhtį̄ (“fear”), from Proto-Indo-European *pr̥k- (“to fear”).
Cognate with Scots fricht (“fright”), Old Frisian fruchte (“fright”), Low German frucht (“fright”), Middle Dutch vrucht, German Furcht (“fear, fright”), Danish frygt (“fear”), Swedish fruktan (“fear, fright, dread”), Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌷𐍄𐌴𐌹 (faurhtei, “fear, horror, fright”). Compare possibly Albanian frikë (“fear, fright, dread, danger”).
Synonyms
Antonyms
Scrabble Score: 13
fright: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordfright: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
fright: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary