terrify
v.to make someone feel very afraid or full of terror. You use this when something is much more than just scary.
v.to fill with extreme fear or intense alarm. Transitive; requires a direct object, which is the person or entity experiencing the fear.
“The loud thunder began to terrify the young children.”
“Sudden engine failure at thirty thousand feet would terrify even the most experienced pilot.”
“The prospect of total economic collapse continued to terrify investors, leading to a frantic sell-off across global markets as they sought safer assets.”
The verb is transitive and takes a direct object.
Learners often confuse the -ed participle (how someone feels) with the -ing participle (the thing causing the feeling).
“If he didn't, the 22-year-old from the north of England would spend the night silent, terrified of saying the wrong thing.”
“By 13, I looked up every film on Wikipedia and read through each trap with terrified excitement.”
From Middle French terrifier, from Latin terrificare.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.