1560 J. Knox Answer Great Nomber Blasphemous Cauillations 399 For nether iustly may those sentences spoken of..the reprobate..be rightly applied to the elect, except it be for terrifying of their conscience.

1591 in M. Wood & R. K. Hannay Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1927) V. 54 For the obedience thairof and for terrefeying of the saidis lipperis to transgres..that thair be ane gibbett sett up.

1617 J. Woodford in Buccleuch MSS (Hist. MSS Comm.) (1899) I. 199 A gibbet having been set up..for the terrifying of the people.

1670 R. Baxter Life of Faith (new ed.) iii. xxvi. 577 To see them take the terrifying of men by corporal penalties, to be their chiefest work.

1789 J. Gough Hist. People called Quakers II. iv. ii. 386 It was not true..that their meeting was to the terrifying of the king's subjects.

1796 New Ann. Reg. 1795 Brit. & Foreign Hist. 76/1 The terrifying of France by indiscriminate threats.

1846 Brit. Churchman Jan. 11 It is all said for the comfort of the suffering, and the terrifying of tyrants.

1883 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Oct. 514/2 Strikes and quarrels and the terrifying of capital are all adverse to prosperity.

1907 S. Mathews Church & Changing Order iv. 107 Preaching is something more than a terrifying of the masses into social order and decency by an appeal to their fear of hell.

1936 R. Firth We, the Tikopia xiii. 421 The exclusion of non-initiates, the terrifying of the novice, the submission of him to ordeals..have a very definite and immediate aim.

2000 J. H. Walton et al. IVP Bible Background Comm. 803 The dismantling of the altar is envisioned as representing the terrifying of the nations.

1577 tr. St. Augustine in H. I. tr. H. Bullinger 50 Godlie Serm. II. iii. x. sig. Qq.viii^v/1 In the very time of the lawe were the men of God, not vnder the terrifying, conuinceing, & punishing law, but vnder the delectable, sauing, and deliuering grace.

c1595 Countess of Pembroke Psalme lxxxviii. 65 in Coll. Wks. (1998) II. 130 Thou dost me fill..With terrifying feares.

1682 J. Bunyan Holy War 78 They had from the Camp of Shaddai such frequent, warm, and terrifying alarms. View more context for this quotation

1748 J. Hervey Medit. & Contempl. (ed. 2) II. 78 At the least disturbing Noise, at the least terrifying Appearance, they start from their Seats.

1795 European Mag. Oct. 227/1 Murmuring streams of snow water run between those terrifying chasms.

1849 C. Stovel Canne's Necessitie of Separation Introd. p. lxxi Exhibitions of terrifying depravity.

1881 R. L. Stevenson Virginibus Puerisque 2 Marriage is terrifying, but so is a cold and forlorn old age.

1922 Woman's World (Chicago) Nov. 13/2 He had never before heard the terrifying scream of Koi, the great tawny panther.

1966 A. MacLean When Eight Bells Toll i. 12 The feral ferocity of the pair of huge hands that closed round my neck from behind was terrifying.

2006 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 8 Aug. 77/1 A must-see, the most important, the most terrifying movie of the year.

1767 Trial England’s Cicero ii. 17 Those who knocked so terrifyingly at the door..were persons free from any hostile disposition towards the great seminary of human knowledge.

1806 T. S. Surr Winter in London I. x. 271 If your honour had not been so terrifyingly flurried, I should have given you the message before.

1908 H. G. Wells War in Air vi. 194 It had crept in upon his mind, chillingly terrifyingly, that these illuminated black masses were great offices afire.

2003 Focus July 92/1 It will be terrifyingly easy for anyone to concoct genocidal superbugs.