Meanings
present singular third person terrorises · participle present terrorising · participle past terrorised · past terrorised
- UKnonstandardNon-Oxford British English standard spelling of terrorize.
Though unusual in the Dublin area he knew that it was not by any means unknown for desperadoes who had next to nothing to live on to be abroad waylaying and generally terrorising peaceable pedestrians by placing a pistol at their head…
1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 16: Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC1 more example
Crawford’s replacement in Sweet Charlotte was 48-year-old Olivia de Havilland, who had already been terrorised by home invaders in the surprisingly vicious Lady in a Cage (1964), though her career low point was probably being stung to death by killer bees in The Swarm (1978) as disaster movies replaced hagsploitation as the last refuge of the fading Hollywood star. […] Sixty-three-year-old Tallulah Bankhead joined the British studio’s monstrous regiment as the religious fanatic who terrorises her dead son’s girlfriend in Die! Die! My Darling! (1965).
2018 January 18, Anne Billson, “'Hagsploitation': horror's obsession with older women returns”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2021
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*tres-
- Proto-Indo-European*troséyeti
- Proto-Italic*troseō
- Latinterreō
- Latinterror
- Old Frenchterreur
- Middle Frenchterreur
- Middle Englishterrour
- Englishterror
- Englishterrorise
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
terrorise. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terrorise
“terrorise.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terrorise. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “terrorise,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terrorise.
Source: terrorise on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.