terrorize
v.to frighten people in a very cruel or violent way. It often involves using threats or force to make people feel unsafe.
v.to subject someone to persistent intimidation, threats, or violence. Transitive — requires a direct object representing the victims or the location being targeted.
“The gang tried to terrorize the local shopkeepers.”
“The local community was terrorized by a series of break-ins that occurred every night for a month.”
“The regime sought to terrorize the population into silence, using arbitrary arrests and public executions as tools of psychological control to suppress any dissent.”
“On one page he describes himself as “equally terrorised by al-Qaida and by my own government”.”
“They discover people betting on them on the dark web from China to the US, while the innocent farmers who own the fields where such events take place are targeted, threatened, attacked and terrorised.”
From terror + -ize.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.