terrorizev.
/ˈtɛrərʌɪz/, U.S. /ˈtɛrəˌraɪz/ 1. transitive. To fill or inspire (a person, nation, etc.) with terror, reduce to a state of terror; to torment; esp. to coerce or deter (someone) by threat or violence; to use terrorism against.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > terrify [verb (transitive)] > coerce or deter by terror
terrorize1812
1812 tr. M. de Montgaillard Situation Great Brit. i. 9 All modern nations, which have successively pretended to a monopoly of commerce..have ‘terrorised’ [Fr. effrayé] the globe by their cruelties and devastations.
1823 Douglas, or, Field of Otterburn II. iii. 33 This was, alas! no crafty scheme to terrorize my mind.
1874 H. R. Reynolds John the Baptist iv. v. 260 He bade them [sc. soldiers] to terrorize no one.
1885 E. Clodd Myths & Dreams i. ii. 18 Superstitions which yet more or less..terrorise the ignorant.
1937 A. Koestler Spanish Test. vi. 132 They had neither the inclination nor the need to terrorise the population.
1970 A. Janov Primal Scream v. 55 We can help him understand the feelings that are terrorizing him.
1981 G. Swift Shuttlecock i. 7 I terrorized my hamster, I tormented a living thing.
2007 M. Apfelbaum Two Flags iii. 63 A phony resistance organization which after recruiting people terrorized them into becoming informers.
2. intransitive. To practise intimidation, to cause fear; to rule, or maintain power, by threat or violence. Also with over.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > terrify [verb (intransitive)] > tyrannize or rule by terror
terrorize1835
1835 Amer. Railroad Jrnl. 5 Sept. 556/1 The men of science in Europe regarded..his discovery..with incredulous contempt; and continued to terrorize upon the strength of former predictions.
1870 Daily News 9 Sept. 6 Count Bismarck..openly..terrorized over the Prussian Chamber by relying upon the support of the army.
1918 C. G. Bowers Life J. W. Kern xv. 299 These armed thugs..were there to terrorize over the miners..and beat up the organizers of the United Mine Workers.
1996 Internet World Dec. 109/1 For most hackers, the intent is not to vandalize, break laws, or terrorize.
Derivatives
ˈterrorized adj.
ΚΠ
1813 C. Cuthbertson Adelaide V. i. 17 Adelaide, in terrorized dismay, almost anticipated the direful tidings.
1865 Sat. Rev. 22 Apr. 470/2 The whimpering and terrorized suppliants against High Church domination.
2000 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 9 Mar. 33/1 In correcting the image of an enserfed and terrorized population, Fitzpatrick goes too far.
ˈterrorizing n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1834 Morning Chron. 3 June England stands aloof; every day more and more distant from the Holy Alliance, with its insults, its interferences, its tyranny, its terrorising.
1835 Boston Investigator 3 July The gaping multitude,..frightened by the terrorising religion which had brought hell and immortality to light.
1927 Daily Tel. 22 Nov. 10/3 A violent denunciation of ‘Stalinism’ and its ‘terrorising of the party’.
1931 Detective Fiction Weekly 5 Sept. 436/1 This circumstance has given Madden that terrorizing thing known in the underworld as ‘muscle’.
2006 M. Walzer Just & Unjust Wars (ed. 4) iii. xii. 197 The systematic terrorizing of whole populations is a strategy of..established governments as well as radical movements.
2006 Time Out N.Y. 5 Jan. 159/1 The appearance of what will eventually turn into a terrorizing torrent of music..is suggestively spooky.
terroriˈzation n. the action of terrorizing.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [noun] > one who or that which terrifies > terrorism
terrorism1796
terrorization1869
Schrecklichkeit1917
1869 Standard 25 Dec. 4/5 Mr Gladstone no longer required them [sc. the Fenians] to play ‘bogey’ for the terrorisation of the English Parliament.
1903 Contemp. Rev. Oct. 586 The Powers can do much by terrorisation.
1997 R. A. Horsley Paul & Empire iv. xiv. 244 The gospel of Christ crucified is indeed utter foolishness to the elite who benefit from Roman terrorization of subject peoples.
ˈterrorizer n. a person who terrorizes.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > lack of subjection > rebelliousness > militancy > terrorism > [noun] > terrorist
terrorist1806
terrorizer1867
outrage-monger1882
the mind > emotion > fear > quality of inspiring fear > quality of terribleness > [noun] > one who or that which terrifies > terrorism > terrorist
terrorist1806
terrorizer1867
soshi1891
gun-man1903
mau-mauer1974
1867 Times 3 July 9/4 If all these fifty thousand Unionists are the terrorizers, where are the terrorized?
1900 Hampshire Tel. & Sussex Chron. 24 Mar. 1/5 The heroic demeanour of the terroriser of the king of beasts in the lions' cage.
2007 A. Gore Assault on Reason v. 155 The ultimate culture of cruelty, so ingrained, so organic,..that everyone in it lived in terror, even the terrorizers.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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