terrorize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to fill or overcome with terror.
-
to dominate or coerce by intimidation.
-
to produce widespread fear by acts of violence, as bombings.
verb
-
to coerce or control by violence, fear, threats, etc
-
to inspire with dread; terrify
Related Words
See frighten.
Other Word Forms
- terrorization noun
- terrorizer noun
- unterrorized adjective
Etymology
Origin of terrorize
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
They initially told him they were deporting him to his home country, which he thinks was done "to terrorize us."
From Barron's
Investigators used genetic genealogy to identify Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. as the Golden State Killer who terrorized California in the 1970s and 80s.
From Los Angeles Times
The mysterious case of a chain-saw-wielding vandal who appeared to randomly terrorize trees in and around downtown Los Angeles last year has come to an anticlimactic close.
From Los Angeles Times
“This festival is intended to lift up our ancestors that came to this country in bondage, terrorized, brutalized,” Ludlow said outside City Hall on Wednesday.
From Los Angeles Times
“They should not be anonymous. They should be identifiable. And they have to have rules of engagement that don’t allow them to terrorize and intimidate, harass and assault U.S. citizens and other people,” he said.
From Salon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
