terrorise

T1E1R1R1O1R1I1S1E1

A form of terrorize — To fill (someone) with terror; to terrify.

UncommonScrabble 9

Meanings

verbterrorise (third-person singular simple present terrorises, present participle terrorising, simple past and past participle terrorised)

present singular third person terrorises · participle present terrorising · participle past terrorised · past terrorised

  1. 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 […], →OCLC
    1 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

verbcoerce by violence or with threats

Similar

verbfill with terror; frighten greatly

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Proto-Indo-European*tres-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*troséyeti
  3. Proto-Italic*troseō
  4. Latinterreō
  5. Latinterror
  6. Old Frenchterreur
  7. Middle Frenchterreur
  8. Middle Englishterrour
  9. Englishterror
  10. Englishterrorise

From terror + -ise.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

terrorise. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terrorise

MLA

“terrorise.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terrorise. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “terrorise,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/terrorise.

Source: terrorise on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.