terrorn.
/ˈtɛrə/, U.S. /ˈtɛrər/ 1. The state of being terrified or extremely frightened; intense fear or dread; an instance or feeling of this. Also in in terror (of something or someone).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of terror or horror > [noun] > terror
grurec900
awec1175
dreadc1200
fearlaca1225
ferdc1330
ferdlac1340
gastnessc1374
tremorc1374
dreadnessa1400
ferdshipa1400
scarea1400
dreadfulnessc1440
raddourc1440
terrorc1480
cremeur1485
fearing1546
c1480 (a1400) St. George 701 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) II. 196 He..but rednes ore terroure of goddis son wes confessoure.
a1513 W. Dunbar Ballat Passioun in Poems (1998) I. 38 For grit terrour of Chrystis deid The erde did trymmill quhair I lay.
1560 Bible (Geneva) Psalms lv. 4 The terrors [Coverdale fear] of death are fallen vpon me.
1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 20 By little and little [they] descended as their terrors forsooke them.
a1616 W. Shakespeare King Lear (1623) iv. ii. 12 It is the Cowish terror of his spirit That dares not vndertake.
1657 G. Thornley tr. Longus Daphnis & Chloe 46 Pan sends a Terrour upon the Methymnæans.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 7. ¶3 This Remark struck a pannick Terror into several that were present.
1752 H. ap D. Price Genuine Acct. Life & Trans. xv. 247 Living in Terror of any Attempt upon her Chastity.
1794 W. Godwin Caleb Williams III. v. 87 The terrors with which I was seized..were extreme.
1837 W. Whewell Hist. Inductive Sci. I. 297 The astrologer examined the aspect of the stars, and while he did this,..showed hesitation, alarm, increasing terror.
1876 A. Trollope Prime Minister IV. x. 162 You would not wish to live all your life in terror of seeing Arthur Fletcher.
1900 S. J. Weyman Story Francis Cludde (new ed.) iv. 45 The terrors of capture got hold of my mind.
1936 E. Goudge City of Bells xiii. 338 A solitary who has cut himself off from human contact comes to have a terror of his fellow humans.
1960 C. Day Lewis Buried Day ii. 33 A delicious terror seized me.
2009 New Yorker 12 Oct. 124/2 His duties..are as much a part of who he is as his terror of intimacy..and his constant low-level depression.
2.
a. The state or quality of being terrible or causing intense fear or dread; a thing or person that causes terror; something terrifying. Also: the excitation of pleasurable feelings of fear by the depiction of violence, the supernatural, etc., as a literary genre.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [noun]
dreadnessa1175
ferdfulness1398
dreadfulnessc1440
terribility?1473
terrora1500
terriblenessa1533
diritya1600
direness1605
direfulnessa1656
dire1660
terrificness1727
tremendousness1727
fearsomeness1891
terribilità1923
terrifyingness1930
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [noun] > one who or that which terrifies
terrora1500
terrifier1586
terrible1606
terrification1622
fright1634
gastering1642
Dracula1938
a1500 (?c1425) Speculum Sacerdotale (1936) 80 (MED) For a gastenynge terrour and cautele, let be enioyned to hure penaunce of vii yere in this maner.
1528 Rede me & be nott Wrothe sig. b vii Threatnynge with fearfull terroure.
1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. ccix He vseth hys name sometime, only for a clooke and a terrour.
1601 T. Campion in P. Rosseter Bk. of Ayres i. xviii. sig. F The horrours of the deepe, And terrours of the Skies.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ii. 704 So spake the grieslie terrour . View more context for this quotation
1712 J. Addison Spectator No. 333. ¶22 The Messiah appears cloathed with so much Terrour and Majesty.
1788 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall (1846) V. l. 16 The ferocious Bedoweens, the terror of the desert.
1815 W. Scott Lord of Isles vi. xvi. 244 To the seeming page he drew, clearing war's terrors from his eye.
1864 J. H. Burton Scot Abroad I. ii. 61 He became..the terror of all the well-disposed within the district.
1917 D. Scarborough Supernat. in Mod. Eng. Fiction i. 6 Gothic is here used to designate the eighteenth-century novel of terror dealing with mediaeval materials.
1921 E. Birkhead (title) The tale of terror: a study of the Gothic romance.
1943 Triumphs of Engin. 56/2 Fortunately that constant terror of the tunneller—the underground spring—was nowhere encountered.
1977 M. Ashley Who's Who in Horror & Fantasy Fiction 103 His masterpiece of terror was The Castle of Ehrenstein (1854), a superb portrayal of a ghost-ridden castle.
1999 S. Rushdie Ground beneath her Feet ii. 52 He would be a terror, as the great lizards had been, the terror of the earth, until the long night fell.
b. A formidable or exasperating person; a troublesome person or thing, esp. a troublesome child; cf. holy terror n. at holy adj. 4c(f).
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > suffering > state of being upset or perturbed > [noun] > cause of > one causing
stroublerc1460
molester1569
discomfiter1807
terror1876
villain1895
sidewinder1906
trouble-maker1923
stirrer1963
1876 London Society Holiday No. 13/2 With..her children to hurl against you, which she does in a persistent remorseless way, she [sc. a wife] is a terror.
1889 Harper's Mag. May 933/1 That bright boy..who was a terror six months ago.
1892 Lady R. Churchill Let. 10 Jan. in R. S. Churchill Winston S. Churchill (1967) I. Compan. i. v. 305 Papa is very well & in good spirits but his beard is a ‘terror’.
1900 G. Swift Somerley 14 There we kept up the reputation of ‘little terrors’ that we had earned with Miss Graten.
1925 S. Lewis Martin Arrowsmith vi. 63 She's an old terror. If she found a child like you wandering around here she'd drag you out by the ear.
1953 K. Tennant Joyful Condemned xxxii. 311 It wasn't your fault. René was always a terror. You did what you could.
1979 A. McCowen Young Gemini 25 At school I was known as a terror and went looking for fights.
1999 C. Newland Society Within (2000) 158 He's a little terror... If he gives yuh any trouble, come an' tell me.
3.
a. historical. With the. Usually with upper-case initial. The period of the French Revolution from about March 1793 to July 1794, marked by extreme repression and bloodshed; a similar period of violent repression occurring in other countries, esp. the former Soviet Union during the first half of the 20th cent. See also Red Terror n. at red adj. and n. Compounds 1f(c)(i), White Terror n.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > oppression > [noun] > reign of terror
reign of terror1784
terrorism1795
terror1798
White Terror1805
Red Terror1864
the world > action or operation > harm or detriment > hostile action or attack > [noun] > persecution > a specific occurrence of
terror1798
Red Terror1864
White Terror1883
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [noun] > one who or that which terrifies > terrorism > reign of terror
reign of terror1784
terror1798
1795 Courier & Evening Gaz. 18 Jan. 1/1 The Convention has annihilated the terror with which Robespierre and his accomplices oppressed all the Republic.]
1798 T. W. Tone Writings (2009) III. 245 The system of police..is far more atrocious than ever it was in France, in the height of the Terror.
1805 Sketch Present State France 29 At Paris, the periods of Terror in the heat of the revolution, and the Terror of the present day, are distinguished by the appellations of the black and the white Terror.
c1870 Miniature xi, in The Sibyl 1 Apr. (1893) When the Terror, with hungry throat Ravished the homes of the wide Touraine.
1920 Glasgow Herald 7 May 9 It was admitted that outrages were committed against the Socialists [in Hungary], but it was denied that a ‘terror’ existed.
1966 G. Greene Comedians i. iii. 100 The Trianon soufflé au Grand Marnier was famous for a time, until the terror started [in Haiti] and the American Mission left.
1978 Encounter July 15/1 Anyone who cannot see and appreciate the true difference between Russia today and Russia at the height of the Stalinist terror has a very poor idea of one or other of these phenomena.
2007 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 20 Dec. 66/3 The tendency to view the Terror as springing from a nationalistic response to external aggression and internal sedition—has long had its critics.
b. As a mass noun. The use of organized repression or extreme intimidation; terrorism.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > rebelliousness > militancy > terrorism > [noun]
terrorism1796
terror1864
1800 J. Moore Mordaunt I. xx. 247 The directory, now, may..rely upon the power of the sword and terror only for spreading their system.]
1864 Bangor (Maine) Daily Whig & Courier 21 Jan. 1/5 (heading) State Terror in the South.
1937 A. Koestler Spanish Test. vi. 132 They had neither the inclination nor the need to..safeguard the territory behind the lines by the application of methods of Terror.
1977 P. Johnson Enemies of Society xviii. 241 Thanks to their use of terror, they [sc. the Assassins] often..forced governments into compliance or impotence.
2004 N.Y. Times Mag. 2 May 51/1 All the major countries on the front line of the war on terror are currently detaining such suspects, often for indefinite periods of time.
Phrases
king of terrors n. (with the) death personified.Originally with allusion to Job 18:14.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > [noun] > personified or as an agent
deathOE
dragon?a1513
stinger1552
stretch-legc1560
king of terrors1610
divorcer?1611
reaper1650
raw-bone1784
Small-Back1823
grim reaper1847
the great or last enemy1885
scytheman1909
1610 H. Broughton Iob xviii. 38 His confidence shalbe plucked vp from his tent: he shalbe conveyed to the king of terrours.
1611 Bible (King James) Job xviii. 14 His confidence..shall bring him to the king of terrours [1560 King of feare; Coverdale very fearfulnesse shall brynge him to the kynge] . View more context for this quotation
1682 J. Flavell Pract. Treat. Fear (new ed.) ii. 9 Job calls it the King of terrours..or the most terrible of terribles.
1746 J. Hervey Medit. among Tombs 24 One is tempted to exclaim against the King of Terrors, and call him capriciously cruel.
1794 W. Godwin Caleb Williams II. xii. 230 It surely is not worse to encounter the king of terrors in health..than to encounter him already half subdued by sickness and suffering.
1838 J. C. Hare & A. W. Hare Guesses at Truth (ed. 2) 1st Ser. 114 It is the only voice which can triumph over death, and turn the king of terrours into an angel of light.
1895 N. A. Woodward Pebbles & Boulders 112 The King of Terrors lurks on every side, In ambush lies—whatever path we tread.
1920 Expositor June 913/1 By his triumph over the king of terrors he [sc. Jesus] is set above all principalities and powers.
1988 Amer. Jrnl. Public Health 78 1590/1 Fear of what this ‘King of Terrors’ [sc. smallpox] would do to his vulnerable army caused General George Washington to prolong his siege.
2008 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 26 June 49/2 Both stories are filled with premonitions of the Kings of Terrors.
reign of terror n. a period of remorseless repression or bloodshed during which the general community live in constant fear of death or violence; spec. (with capital initials) French History the period of the First Revolution from about March 1793 to July 1794; = sense 3a. [With the spec. use with reference to the French Revolution, compare French le règne de la terreur (1794 or earlier in this sense).]
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > rule or government > oppression > [noun] > reign of terror
reign of terror1784
terrorism1795
terror1798
White Terror1805
Red Terror1864
society > authority > rule or government > a or the system of government > specific regimes > [noun] > in France
reign of terror1784
ancient regime1792
ancien régime1794
terrorism1795
First Republic1800
White Terror1805
restoration1815
consulate1845
Red Terror1864
commune1871
marshalate1874
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [noun] > one who or that which terrifies > terrorism > reign of terror
reign of terror1784
terror1798
1784 J. Farell tr. F. d'Ivernois Hist. & Polit. View Constit. & Revol. Geneva iii. iv. 309 If the reign of terror can exist at all, will its existence be long?
1801 H. M. Williams Sketches Manners French Republic I. xviii. 231 This superb monument had suffered most from the reign of terror.
1848 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 8 Mar. (1954) I. 255 The Glasgow riots are more serious, but one cannot believe in a Scotch Reign of Terror in these days.
1891 Ld. Rosebery Pitt xi. 186 On the one side there were murders, roastings, plunder of arms, and a reign of terror [in Ireland in 1797].
1905 Baroness Orczy Scarlet Pimpernel xi. 109 The news of the awful September massacres, and of the Reign of Terror and Anarchy.
1965 Ebony Apr. 49/1 Civil and religious authorities initiated a reign of terror, martyring thousands.
1989 W. Taubman & J. Taubman Moscow Spring 18 Facts about Stalin's long reign of terror poured forth in the press—numbers of victims, details of their fates in NKVD torture chambers.
2005 T. Hall Salaam Brick Lane i. 9 It was allowed to grow unchecked into the slums so vilified during Jack the Ripper's reign of terror.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a. (In sense 2.)
terror novel n.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > novel > [noun] > sensational novel or thriller
sensation novel1856
penny dreadful1861
dime novel1864
curdler1872
dreadful1874
blood and thunder1876
penny awful1880
shilling dreadful1885
thrill1886
thriller1889
blood1892
terror novel1896
penny horrible1899
spine-thriller1912
roman noir1926
spine-chiller1940
scorcher1942
spine-tingler1942
spine-freezer1960
1896 G. Saintsbury Hist. 19th-cent. Lit. xii. 468 The terror-novel and the Minerva Press should surely be useful skeletons to him at his feast of fiction.
1972 P. Haining Great Brit. Tales of Terror I. 117 William Beckford, author of the great Oriental terror-novel, Vathek.
2009 R. J. C. Young in E. Boehmer & S. Morton Terror & Postcolonial iii. xii. 316 If the eighteenth century invented terror, the nineteenth was the great age of terror novels.
terror romance n.
ΚΠ
1917 D. Scarborough Supernatural in Mod. Eng. Fiction i. 42 The symbols of dread and the ghostly are used to good effect in the terror romance.
1972 P. Haining Great Brit. Tales of Terror I. 477 That chilling atmosphere which made the Gothic terror-romance so widely popular in its time.
2008 C. Herbert War of no Pity vi. 245 These [sc. sensation novels] were easy to recognize as descendants of the gothic terror romances.
b. (In sense 3.)
terror alert n.
ΚΠ
1961 Tucson (Arizona) Daily Citizen 4 May 39/1 (heading) Terror alert relaxes in Algiers.
1985 Guardian 12 Apr. 24/7 (heading) Terror alert as Thatcher keeps date in Colombo.
2004 9/11 Comm. Rep. (National Comm. Terrorist Attacks U.S.) viii. 258 Saudi Arabia declared its highest level of terror alert.
terror attack n.
ΚΠ
1929 Syracuse (N.Y.) Herald 8 Oct. 6/2 (heading) Blast occurs as watchers relax guard. Whole Olive Street section again shaken in terror attack.
1962 Boston Globe 21 May 25/4 The toll of this and scattered O.A.S. terror attacks in Algiers alone was five killed and nine wounded.
2009 D. O'Briain Tickling Eng. xiii. 189 Business continuity... The sector of industry which promises to keep your offices and shops functioning after a flood, a terror attack or a meteor shower.
terror campaign n.
ΚΠ
1909 Hamilton (Ohio) Tel. 24 June 6/3 The terror campaign which has kept the foreign blood of Ohio chilled for years.
1940 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 45 539 The spying services and the terror campaigns were systematized.
2001 D. J. Whittaker Terrorism Reader (2002) xi. 162 The leaders of Sendero still at large vociferously proclaimed their disassociation from any peace feelers and cessation of their terror campaign.
terror group n.
ΚΠ
1919 Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press 17 July 1/5 The so-called terror group, who have gone to extremes in punishing alleged violators of bolshevik laws and have embarrassed the soviet government.
1977 P. Johnson Enemies of Society xviii. 242 The diabolism of Stavrogin, who preaches the doctrine that the terror-group can only be united by fear and moral depravity.
2002 Economist 6 July 8/3 A Spanish judge told Batasuna, the political arm of the Basque separatist terror group ETA, to pay a fine.
terror organization n.
ΚΠ
1886 Anglo-Amer. Times 5 Nov. 6/1 That result [sc. of the Presidential election] is not worth a Ku Klux Terror Organisation.
1917 T. Seltzer tr. B. Savinkov What never Happened xiii. 98 Not..Volodya, nor Vanya had decided to attack this locked house in the night like thieves, but the terror organization, the Party, Moscow, all Russia.
2004 New Yorker 8 Nov. 87/1 When Oz was seven, the Stern Gang, a Jewish terror organization, exploded a car bomb outside the barracks.
terror plot n.
ΚΠ
1905 Chicago Tribune 1 Apr. 2/3 (heading) Terror plots alarm Russia.
1981 Observer 4 Jan. 1/2 Two Germans alleged to have been involved in an anti-Israel terror plot.
2006 N.Y. Times Mag. 25 June 42/2 Since July 7, there have been four more serious terror plots.
terror regime n.
ΚΠ
1896 Musical Courier 16 Jan. 227/3 In March of the following year [sc. 1793] the disturbed waters settled into the huge waves of the Terror régime.
1952 A. Koestler Arrow in Blue viii. 68 Admiral Horthy established the first semi-Fascist terror régime in post-war Europe.
2002 R. W. Service Hist. Mod. Russia iii. xii. 190 The White Armies..were rehabilitated as patriotic forces seeking to destroy the communist terror-regime.
terror suspect n.
ΚΠ
1934 Washington Post 16 Oct. 3/2 A third terror suspect fell into the hands of French police today.
1978 Guardian 29 July 5/8 (heading) German terror suspect indicted.
2008 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 12 June 68/4 ‘Control orders’, equally applicable to British and foreign terror suspects.
terror threat n.
ΚΠ
1917 N.Y. Tribune 20 Feb. 1/6 The holding of American ships in port by the terror threats of Germany.
1920 Chicago Tribune 14 Dec. 1/7 (heading) All lines to Dublin cut. Irish capital isolated; new terror threat.
2006 J. Updike Terrorist i. 43 The Secretary for Homeland Security upgrades the so-called terror-threat level from yellow, meaning merely ‘elevated’, to orange, meaning ‘high’.
C2. Objective.
terror-breathing adj.
ΚΠ
1597 M. Drayton Englands Heroicall Epist. f. 23 Curses..Through the sterne throate of terror-breathing warre.
1782 Ann. Reg. 1781 185 The dread chaunt, still true to Nature's laws, Is deepen'd by the terror-breathing pause.
2000 A. J. Mayer Furies (2002) ii. vii. 218 There was no terror-breathing and ideologically emblematic Robespierre..to turn into a sacrificial example.
terror-causing adj.
ΚΠ
1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. ii. xii. 275 His loude, and terror-causing roaring.
1808 Belfast Monthly Mag. Dec. 296/2 The reader sees..the father remove the terror-causing object, and fondling his son.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses ii. xiv. [Oxen of the Sun] 373 The terrorcausing shrieking of shrill women in their labour.
2003 R. Hope Amer. sold Out xv. 228 The NWO conspiracy has to accomplish ‘objectives’..in any terror-causing scenario they perpetrate.
terror-giving adj. now rare
ΚΠ
1739 R. Savage Of Public Spirit (ed. 2) 8 Instant we catch her Terror-giving Cares.
1895 Southeastern Reporter 22 696/2 The fright of his mule, produced by the close and terror-giving proximity of the locomotive.
1936 I. Prasad Hist. of Qaraunah Turks in India ii. 79 His reputation increased to such an extent that he was commonly described as a terror-giving fever.
terror-inspiring adj.
ΚΠ
1793 Universal Mag. Feb. 115/1 A meadow of terror-inspiring bulls and oxen.
1854 ‘G. Greenwood’ Haps & Mishaps 91 None but well-made, tall, and powerful men have any chance of enrolment in this honourable terror-inspiring, omnipresent corps.
1997 J. Assmann Moses the Egyptian iv. 134 Typical terror-inspiring phenomena of the sublime are obscurity, vacuity, darkness, solitude, [etc.].
terror preaching adj. and n.
ΚΠ
1630 M. Drayton Noahs Floud in Muses Elizium 95 This good man, this terror-preaching Noy.
1888 Sc. Rev. July iii. 125 Terror-preaching of a most fanatical type..was quite common and, indeed, strange to say, pretty generally relished in the Highlands up till within the last score of years.
1999 J. R. Olivas in C. V. Pestana & S. V. Salinger Inequality in Early Amer. 74 Despite gnawing doubts about terror preaching among many Boston ministers, Tennent's attempts to bring Bostonians under conviction generally succeeded.
terror-stirring adj.
ΚΠ
?1611 G. Chapman tr. Homer Iliads xxii. 320 Then all the Greekes..admir'd his terror-stirring lim.
1883 J. A. Symonds Ital. Byways 165 Webster is writing in sarcastic, meditative, or deliberately terror-stirring moods.
2006 D. Goleman Social Intelligence iii. xii. 185 A toddler..should not watch a terror-stirring movie of the Nightmare on Elm Street variety.
terror-striking adj.
ΚΠ
1597 M. Drayton Englands Heroicall Epist. f. 40 His dreadfull terror-striking name.
1798 R. P. Tour in Wales (MS) 30 Superstition and Savageism having existed when these terror striking fabrics were erected.
1989 J. Le Vay M. Anglin viii. 165 Turbulent, terror-striking, Miss Anglin's Medea was positively sublime in her fearfulness.
C3. Instrumental.
a. † terror-mingled adj. Obsolete
terror-crazed adj.
ΚΠ
1873 W. Carleton Burning of Chicago viii The panic-struck, terror-crazed city.
1927 Boys' Life July 20/1 Dick, apparently still too terror-crazed for thought, grasped at Mendez next.
1998 T. O'Brien Tomcat in Love ix. 74 Three stories high, suspended by its hind paws, the terror-crazed feline had no stomach for lunch.
terror-filled adj.
ΚΠ
1856 W. Robson tr. A. Dumas Twenty Years After xci. 502 Mazarin turned his terror-filled eyes from one to the other.
1956 Clearing House 30 564/2 In the film he becomes mad during the terror-filled moments of the fight with the whale.
2010 Irish News (Nexis) 16 Oct. 20 We have travelled far from those terrible, terror-filled days.
terror-fraught adj.
ΚΠ
a1800 M. Robinson Savage of Aveyron in Mem. (1801) III. 174 Hollow was the morning blast, As o'er the leafless woods it past, While terror-fraught it stood!
1868 F. W. Farrar Seekers after God i. vii. 98 All this terror-fraught interspace between heaven and earth.
1989 S. R. Lawhead Arthur xiii. 279 An entire lifetime passed in the space of a few terror-fraught heartbeats.
terror-haunted adj.
ΚΠ
1761 R. Shepherd Nuptials iii. 75 His Bosom free From Terror-haunted Conscience.
1844 H. W. Longfellow Norman Baron vii The lays they chanted Reached the chamber terror-haunted.
1995 P. Conroy Beach Music (1996) xviii. 294 I had to endure the terror-haunted void of forgetfulness.
ΚΠ
1799 T. Campbell Pleasures of Hope & Other Poems ii. 255 Nature hears, with terror-mingled trust, The shock that hurls her fabric in the dust.
1836 Emancipator (N.Y.) 1 Feb. Spare, spare, good Lord! Avenge not yet the wrong! Nor drain, wrath-drugged for us, thy terror mingled cup!
terror-ridden adj.
ΚΠ
1835 J. John Recent Events at Mauritius 238 Large numbers of the colonists were loyal at heart, but terror-ridden.
1915 St. Nicholas June 694/2 Joyce could only marvel at her astonishing coolness, who had always been the most timid and terror-ridden of mortals.
2008 R. Pearson Killer View xviii. 95 He's pulled out bodies, the faces frozen in..terror-ridden masks of inescapable panic.
terror-riven adj.
ΚΠ
1844 R. M. Milnes Palm Leaves 4 Europe echoed, terror-riven, That a new foot was on the earth.
1907 Munsey's Mag. Dec. 337/1 When she heard Fred's terror-riven voice she was shocked into stillness.
1997 S. L. Kaplan in J. L. McClain et al. Edo & Paris (new ed.) viii. 182 Terror-riven women in the faubourg Saint-Marcel talked of dying of hunger.
terror-shaken adj.
ΚΠ
1806 T. L. Peacock Palmyra xiv. 16 Discord's myriad voices rattle O'er the terror-shaken plain.
1908 W. H. Fitchett Pawn in Game xv. 115 Even under Danton ‘justice’ was too slow for terror-shaken Paris.
2001 Mirror (Nexis) 21 Sept. 21 The premier is on a high-profile visit to terror-shaken New York.
terror-smitten adj.
ΚΠ
1798 W. Dunlap Cow Chace iii. in Andre 82 Sublime upon the stirrups rose The mighty Lee behind, And drove the terror-smitten cows, Like chaff before the wind.
1872 Ballou's Monthly Mag. May 453/2 The winged lightning darted into the great room, revealing the terror-smitten faces of the crouching servants and retainers gathered therein.
2005 M. Ajami Bk. Generations 195 A terror-smitten friend leapt out of the dust-borne car and dashed towards us.
terror-stiffened adj.
ΚΠ
1864 E. W. Price Ecce Homo in Leah 274 They strove to tear, with terror-stiffened hands, The eyeballs straining and most nigh to crack!
1914 G. B. Shaw Common Sense about War in New Statesman 14 Nov. (Special War Suppl.) 28/1 Stupid people are apt to believe that this sort of terror-stiffened seriousness is virtue.
2009 E. Clayton Nucl. Kool-aid Acrid Test xv. 108 My terror-stiffened jaw dropped and shoulders relaxed in sudden relief.
terror-stricken adj.
ΚΠ
1628 Looke vp & see Wonders 14 The terror-stricken witnesses.
1845 H. B. Hirst Coming of Mammoth 16 Our terror-stricken warriors quailed.
1995 Stornoway Gaz. 13 July 8/4 If he could have known what the real motive was..he would have fled like a terror-stricken deer.
terror-struck adj.
ΚΠ
1647 T. Fuller Cause Wounded Conscience iv. 24 Sathan..discovereth..a Soule terrour-struck.
1799 H. Lee Canterbury Tales (ed. 2) I. 270 She found herself alone,..terror-struck, bewildered.
1869 Ballou's Monthly Mag. Oct. 348/2 The fragile canoes were jostled about like egg shells, their occupants too giddy and terror-struck to control them.
1998 J. Henderson Rom. Life xviii. 100 Terrorstruck prayers for those in peril on the sea give way abruptly to more exclamatory happiness!
terror-tainted adj. rare
ΚΠ
1824 C. Lamb in London Mag. Sept. 226/1 A sneaking curiosity, terror-tainted.
2003 D. Frum & R. N. Perle End to Evil iv. 77 Cracking down not only on terror-tainted charities, but on the charities' donors.
b.
terror-strike v.
ΚΠ
1611 W. Barksted Hiren sig. A4v So her beames did terror strike his sight.
1869 Q. Rev. July 103/2 All Paris was terror-struck by the massacre of St. Bartholomew.
1997 T. Dunlap tr. H. Wolfram Rom. Empire & its Germanic Peoples Introd. 6 If a storm approached during a battle, they [sc. barbarians] were terror struck by the fear the heavens might collapse upon them.
C4. Special combinations.† terror-fit n. Obsolete a fit of terror, a period of intense fearfulness.
terror act n. an act of terrorism; an atrocity committed by a terrorist.
ΚΠ
1921 G. Seldes in Chicago Tribune 2/5 The radicals, united with the conservatives, are calling the reported partition ‘a criminal act’, ‘a terror act’, and ‘an act of violence from the league of nations’.
1934 Amer. Mercury Oct. 225/1 Terror acts of such kind were apt to bring down governments in the past.
1946 A. Koestler Thieves in Night 243 While the usual terror acts continued, the Jewish representative bodies issued their usual protests.
2001 P. Wilkinson Terrorism versus Democracy iii. 45 International incidents only constitute a tiny minority of the annual total of terror acts world-wide.
terror bird n. any of various large, extinct, and typically flightless birds of prey, spec. (a) a bird of the genus Gastornis (family Gastornithidae) of the early Tertiary period in Europe and North America; (b) a member of the family Phorusrhacidae, found mainly in South America in the later Tertiary period.
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1925 C. F. Lummis Mesa, Cañon & Pueblo vii. 97 That super-condor, the teratornis, ‘terror bird’—with a fourteen-foot spread of wings.
1941 Sci. News Let. 4 Jan. 7/1 (caption) The modern eagle skeleton at the right will give you an idea of how huge was the five-foot-tall flightless terror bird that stalked through South America.
1992 D. G. Campbell Crystal Desert ii. 50 These are probably the tracks of the so-called terror bird, a flightless, fast running relative of the cranes and rails that stood three and a half meters tall.
2008 Daily Record (Glasgow) (Nexis) 8 Mar. 38 The CGI mammoths and terror birds look spectacular on the big screen.
terror-bombing n. intensive and indiscriminate bombing designed to frighten a country into surrender.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > hostilities in the air > [noun] > air operation > bombing raid > dropping of bombs > manner of
area bombardment1918
straddling1919
pattern-bombing1933
terror-bombing1933
dive-bombing1935
firebombing1935
blind-bombing1940
blitzing1940
coventrating1940
nuisance bombing1940
scatter bombing1940
coventration1942
carpet bombing1943
obliteration bombing1943
skip-bombing1943
shuttle bombing1944
atom bombing1945
atomic bombing1945
clobbering1948
loft-bombing1956
1933 Hayward (Calif.) Rev. 8 Aug. 1/5 In what investigators say is the ninth ‘black hand’ terror bombing..in the past year, the..home of Sam Riccatto, orchardist, was destroyed by a blast and fire early today.
1945 Time 26 Feb. 32/1 Terror bombing of German cities was deliberate military policy.
1990 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 29 Mar. 35/1 Churchill, who had been an ardent proponent of the offensive, then denounced it as terror bombing.
terror drop n. (a) a drop of sweat produced in a state of terror; (b) a terrifying parachute drop.
ΚΠ
1821 T. H. Marshal Irish Necromancer I. iii. 71 ‘Billingsgate Nell is a trifle to him,’ cried Mr. Seymour, as he wiped the terror-drops from his forehead.
1897 ‘P. Warung’ Tales Old Regime 184 [Convicts] who sweated terror-drops beneath their stamped blankets.
1994 Daily Record (Nexis) 15 Dec. 23 The ropes [sc. of her parachute] were tangled and the 27-year-old teacher faced a terror drop.
ΚΠ
1829 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. July 80/2 I observed the terror fit coming on again, but he rallied quickly.
1868 Ld. Houghton Sel. from Wks. 199 At doubt and terror-fit he only laughed.
1881 G. MacDonald Mary Marston lii. 413 After the night he had passed, he was now in one of his terror-fits.
terror-gleam n. [after Swedish skräckglans (1886 in the passage translated in quot. 1889)] a dark mist that hovers over the river Thund which surrounds Asgard in Scandinavian mythology.
ΚΠ
1889 R. B. Anderson tr. V. Rydberg Teutonic Mythol. xxxvi. 163 The material of which the ignitible mist consists is called ‘black terror-gleam’ [Sw. Ämnet, hvaraf den antändliga dimman består, kallas ‘svart skräckglans’].
1913 J. E. Mercer Nature Mysticism xvii. 107 The stream of fire-mist, the lightning, which with its ‘terror-gleam’ flows as a barrier round Asgard, the home of the gods.
1989 H. Y. Grimes Norse Myths i. i. 13 Floating on the river was a dark shining flammable mist...The black terror-gleam had a wisdom of its own and the ability to aim its flames at specific attackers.
terror raid n. a raid undertaken in order to instil terror, esp. as part of a campaign of terror bombing.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > hostilities in the air > [noun] > air operation > bombing raid > type of
terror raid1917
blitzkrieg1939
blitz1940
fire-blitz1940
fire-raid1940
Baedeker raid1942
nuisance raid1942
thunderbolt raid1943
1917 Gleaner (Kingston, Jamaica) 12 Mar. 11/6 (heading) Bernstorff planned terror raid in the U.S.
1945 Ann. Reg. 1944 3 The Royal Air Force had never indulged in purely terror raids like those perpetrated by the Luftwaffe.
2004 Herald Express (Torquay) (Nexis) 27 May 49 The terror raids that began in the winter of 1940 on a city that believed a balloon barrage and anti-aircraft guns would protect it from the Luftwaffe.
terror tactics n. the deliberate use of terror as a means of achieving esp. political ends.
ΚΠ
1913 Iola (Kansas) Daily Reg. 20 Mar. 1/3 (headline) Terror tactics grow bolder.
1974 Encycl. Brit. Micropædia V. 427/2 A ‘provisional’ wing [of the IRA]..comprising the younger, militant majority committed to the use of terror tactics.
2005 New Internationalist Mar. 9/3 Common experiences among those who commit themselves to terror tactics.
Derivatives
ˈterrorful adj. full of or fraught with terror, terrifying.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [adjective]
eislichc888
eyesfulOE
awfulc1175
smarta1200
ferlya1225
sternc1275
grisea1300
uglya1300
dreadfula1325
fell?c1335
stout1338
perilousc1380
terriblec1400
ghastfulc1449
timorous1455
epouventable1477
bedreadc1485
dreadablec1490
dreadc1540
buggisha1555
dreaded1556
monster-like1561
dire1567
scareful1567
terrifying1577
scary1582
direful1583
affrighting1592
dismal1594
affrightful1603
diral1606
tirable1607
frighting1619
scaring1641
affrighteninga1651
formidolous1656
terrific1667
terrifical1677
atrocious1733
terrorful1789
orful1845
lurid1850
terrorsome1890
turble1893
timorsome1894
like the wrath of God1936
1789 Weekly Entertainer 5 Oct. 333 A soldier, sword in hand, Terrorful like you'll see me stand.
1870 Contemp. Rev. 14 491 That dark jaggedness and terrorful meaning, which come out more and more fully when bright light plays round the edges of anything black and awful.
1999 P. Anderson Operation Luna (2000) xxxviii. 344 My dreams were weird, though not as terrorful as I'd expected.
ˈterrorsome adj. = terrorful adj.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [adjective]
eislichc888
eyesfulOE
awfulc1175
smarta1200
ferlya1225
sternc1275
grisea1300
uglya1300
dreadfula1325
fell?c1335
stout1338
perilousc1380
terriblec1400
ghastfulc1449
timorous1455
epouventable1477
bedreadc1485
dreadablec1490
dreadc1540
buggisha1555
dreaded1556
monster-like1561
dire1567
scareful1567
terrifying1577
scary1582
direful1583
affrighting1592
dismal1594
affrightful1603
diral1606
tirable1607
frighting1619
scaring1641
affrighteninga1651
formidolous1656
terrific1667
terrifical1677
atrocious1733
terrorful1789
orful1845
lurid1850
terrorsome1890
turble1893
timorsome1894
like the wrath of God1936
1890 Leeds Mercury 3 Feb. 5/1 A writer..makes it terrorsome by the following anecdote.
1940 L. Embury Listening Man xvi. 259 A battle-axe was a terrorsome sight!
2008 J. O'Reilly Wife in North 172 My sons are my lions; terrorsome and grand.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
terrorv.
/ˈtɛrə/, U.S. /ˈtɛrər/ 1. transitive. To strike (someone) with terror, to terrify; to fill (a dream, etc.) with terror.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > terrify [verb (transitive)]
afearOE
affrightOE
breec1000
offrightlOE
agastc1225
offearc1225
dreadc1250
agrisec1275
begallowc1320
ashunchc1325
adreadc1330
affrayc1330
fleya1400
grise1513
terrify1536
fray-bug1551
thunderbolta1586
fear-blast1593
gaster1593
hazen1593
terrorc1595
affrighten1615
ter-terrifya1618
flaite1642
pavefy1656
repall1687
hobgoblin1707
scarify1794
to scare the daylights out of1951
c1595 First Pt. Reign Richard II (1929) iv. 96 This great state that terrord christendome.
1635 T. Heywood Hierarchie Blessed Angells viii. 515 They, terror'd with these words, demand his name.
1880 T. C. Irwin Pictures & Songs 15 The sound of the heavy portcullis of stone descending,..Terrored the furious banquetters.
1912 Washington Post 9 Oct. 3/2 (heading) Snaps Gun at Son. Father Accused of Terroring Family.
1962 J. Clavell King Rat xxvi. 385 All these things had wrecked his sleep and terrored his dreams.
2010 D. W. Finton Don't Put her down You 5 He enjoyed terroring us; but, I never feared him the way I feared her.
2. intransitive. To cause terror. Also transitive: to make (one's way) while spreading terror. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. iv. Ded. 155 A Law..as all other penal Statutes intended but to terrour.
1864 Dublin Univ. Mag. Jan. 104/2 A sound..suddenly broke above the city, terroring in peals of..concentrated wrath and vengeance.
1900 Poet-lore 4 238 Conquer, triumph, and when the world is won, Turn terroring towards the demon in your heart.
1976 J. Jaynes Origin Consciousness in Breakdown Bicameral Mind 215 The Assyrians begin..butchering and terroring their way back to their former empire.
Derivatives
ˈterrored adj.
ΚΠ
1745 ‘Eloisa’ Snail 48 Maugre the vary'd Scenes of terror'd Death.
1878 P. W. Wyatt Hardrada 3 His brother's wrong, his own false service numbs The terror'd heart of Tostig.
2004 D. Morrill Untouched Minutes 35 In those first days after you appeared, my terrored mind sometimes imagined you were our neighbour.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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