intimidate
v.to make someone feel frightened or nervous so that they do what you want. It often happens when someone seems more powerful or talented than you.
v.to frighten or overawe someone, especially in order to influence their behaviour or compel them to perform an action. Often involves a perceived imbalance of power or skill.
“The big dog tries to intimidate the smaller cats.”
“The lawyer tried to intimidate the witness by asking aggressive questions in a loud voice.”
“The sheer scale of the corporate headquarters was designed to intimidate visitors, reinforcing the company's dominance in the global market through imposing architecture.”
The verb is transitive and requires a direct object.
When expressing the cause of the fear, use the preposition 'by' or 'with', not 'of'.
“But taken together, the rammings, fires and arrests have created a powerful sense that violence is being used to intimidate, punish and send messages.”
“Huckabee posted a video of a convoy of Israeli military and police vehicles, saying they were removing “illegal trespassers there to intimidate Palestinian residents”.”
From Medieval Latin intimidātus, perfect passive participle of Latin intimidō (“to intimidate, terrify”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + timidus (“afraid, timid”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix); see timid.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.