af·fright

(ə-frīt′)

tr.v. af·fright·ed, af·fright·ing, af·frights

To arouse fear in; terrify: "Many of nature's greatest oddities, that would affright dwellers up here, are accepted down there" (David Mazel).

1. Great fear; terror.

2. A cause of terror.

[Middle English afrighten, from Old English āfyrhtan : ā-, intensive pref. + fyrhtan, to frighten (from fyrhto, fright).]

af·fright′ment n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

affrightment

(əˈfraɪtmənt)

1. obsolete the act of causing fear or alarm

2. obsolete a cause of fear or alarm

3. archaic the condition of being alarmed or in a state of fear

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

References in periodicals archive

Richard was hang'd; and after both of them were hang'd up in chaines, where now they doe remaine, to the affrightment of all beholders' (London, 1635); 'The lamentation of Master Pages wife of Plimmouth who being enforced by her parents to wed him against her will, did most wickedly consent to his murther, for the love of George Strangwidge; for which fact she suffered death at Barstable in Devonshire.

A dramaturgical study of merrythought's songs in The Knight Of The Burning Pestle

Affrightment of Greenbelt, Md., and Hangable Bridal Design of Frederick, Md., created the bride's gown.

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