From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishterrifyter‧ri‧fy /ˈterɪfaɪ/ ●●○ verb (terrified, terrifying, terrifies) [transitive] FRIGHTENEDto make someone extremely afraid Her husband’s violence terrified her.→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
terrify• The teacher terrified her so much, that she hated going to school.• The idea of going down into the caves terrified her.• It terrified him to think that, in six months time, he would have to stand up in front of a class and teach them something.• My uncle suffers from agoraphobia, and the idea of leaving the house terrifies him.• Speaking in public terrifies me.• They hauled us into a huge corporate office in Capitol; 1,000 people were there and it totally terrified me.Origin terrify (1500-1600) Latin terrificare, from terrificus; → TERRIFIC 