From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishintimidatein‧tim‧i‧date /ɪnˈtɪmədeɪt/ ●○○ verb [transitive] 1 THREATENto frighten or threaten someone into making them do what you wantintimidate somebody into doing something They tried to intimidate the young people into voting for them. Attempts to intimidate her failed.2 to make someone feel worried and not confident The whole idea of going to Oxford intimidated me. —intimidation /ɪnˌtɪməˈdeɪʃən/ noun [uncountable] She had endured years of intimidation and violence. the intimidation of voters→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
intimidate• He's being kept in jail until the trial so that he can't intimidate any of the witnesses.• Large audiences don't intimidate him.• Some workers are saying that they were intimidated into accepting the pay cuts, with threats of job losses.• In the former Soviet Union, the KGB was used to intimidate those who disagreed with the Communist Party.• The boss is quite tough, but don't let him intimidate you.Origin intimidate (1600-1700) Medieval Latin past participle of intimidare, from Latin timidus; → TIMID 