TERRORIZE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does terrorize mean? 

• TERRORIZE (verb)
  The verb TERRORIZE has 2 senses:

1. coerce by violence or with threats

2. fill with terror; frighten greatly

  Familiarity information: TERRORIZE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TERRORIZE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they terrorize    ... he / she / it terrorizes   
Past simple: terrorized   
Past participle: terrorized   
-ing form: terrorizing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Coerce by violence or with threats

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

terrorise; terrorize

Hypernyms (to "terrorize" is one way to...):

coerce; force; hale; pressure; squeeze (to cause to do through pressure or necessity, by physical, moral or intellectual means)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

Sam cannot terrorize Sue

Derivation:

terror (an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety)

terrorization (an act of terrorism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Fill with terror; frighten greatly

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

terrify; terrorise; terrorize

Hypernyms (to "terrorize" is one way to...):

affright; fright; frighten; scare (cause fear in)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "terrorize"):

panic (cause sudden fear in or fill with sudden panic)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The bad news will terrorize him

Derivation:

terror (an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety)

terrorization (the act of inspiring with fear)

 Context examples 

At one time in his life he had been just a common hoodlum, the leader of a gang that worried the police and terrorized honest, working-class householders.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A handful of villainous half-breeds dominated the country, armed such Indians as would support them, and turned the rest into slaves, terrorizing them with the most inhuman tortures in order to force them to gather the india-rubber, which was then floated down the river to Para.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)