affright
/əˈfrʌɪt
/archaic
verb [with object]
Frighten (someone): ghosts could never affright her...
- ‘Oh my lord, my lord, I have been so affrighted!’
- John was affrighted at the eager enjoyment - the appetite, as it were - with which he found himself inhaling the fragrance of the flowers.
- But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
noun [mass noun]
Fright: the deer gazed at us in affright...
- The words heard by the party upon the staircase were the Frenchman's exclamations of horror and affright, commingled with the fiendish jabberings of the brute.
- No wonder the wolves start back in affright; no wonder the vultures, after stooping low, ply their wings in quick nervous stroke, and soar up again!
- As she turned in affright she was confronted by a white man.
Origin
Late Middle English: in early use from āfyrhted 'frightened' in Old English; later by vague form association with fright.
Rhymes
- up the pole
- up there Cazaly!
- up the river
- up the spout
- up the stick
- upthrow
- upthrust
- uptick
- uptight
- uptime
- up to
- up to a point
- up to date
- up to eleven
- up to mud
- up to no good
- up to one's armpits
- up to one's ears in
- up to one's elbows in
- up to one's neck in
- up to one's (old) tricks
- up top
- up to par
- up to putty
- up to scratch