How to Use terrify in a Sentence

terrify

verb
  • The thought of dying alone terrifies her.
  • There’s a scene in the last episode which terrified me.
    Chris Gardner, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Dec. 2023
  • This isn’t the kind of film that is going to terrify you.
    Bill Goodykoontz, The Arizona Republic, 30 Nov. 2022
  • The world was shocked — and terrified — by the agreement.
    Victor Davis Hanson, The Mercury News, 15 Aug. 2019
  • The idea of growing old as a gay man used to terrify me.
    Washington Post, 24 Sep. 2021
  • The friend was terrified: Had Kristin been killed as well?
    Jennifer Gonnerman, The New Yorker, 27 Nov. 2023
  • You must be terrified that your youngest wants to be a movie star.
    Marc Malkin, Variety, 19 July 2023
  • And yet the prospect of being funny, at least on the page, terrified her.
    Zahir Janmohamed, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2023
  • It’s meant to terrify, to disgust, to bring us to tears.
    Mark Hughes, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023
  • The slayings had shocked and terrified the country three decades ago, the trail long gone cold.
    Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2019
  • De Aquino has gotten to go along on overflights of the crater, the first time terrified.
    MarÍa Verza, BostonGlobe.com, 27 May 2023
  • Parents there said they were terrified at the prospect of sending their kids back to school in the fall.
    USA Today, 23 Mar. 2023
  • That’s a straight-up and down branch, and exactly the sort of thing that would terrify the TVA.
    Chris Smith, BGR, 1 July 2021
  • What ought to terrify – and motivate – the rest of the WNBA?
    Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 18 Sep. 2022
  • As Cody points out, the process was far from easy, if not terrifying at times.
    Liza Lentini, SPIN, 7 May 2024
  • We were all crammed in there, and William was looking terrified in the corner.
    Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, 1 July 2023
  • There aren’t too many things that terrify Maya Rudolph.
    Lacey Rose, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 June 2022
  • Their efforts to make the world safe again for measles and polio should terrify you.
    Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2024
  • Not since her first ride in a biplane in 1919, when the pilot did loop-de-loops to terrify her.
    Jeff Suess, The Enquirer, 11 Apr. 2021
  • But the lack of a clear No. 1 starter doesn’t terrify McDonnell.
    Cameron Teague Robinson, The Courier-Journal, 20 May 2021
  • Unlike those pros, April is terrified to be in front of the camera.
    Odie Henderson, BostonGlobe.com, 1 Aug. 2023
  • The people who brag about standing up to Xi are terrified of a 15‐year-old kid.
    Jonathan Edwards, Washington Post, 16 Oct. 2023
  • The friends hid in the greenhouse for 16 hours without food and water, terrified for their lives.
    Gabriele Regalbuto, Fox News, 18 Oct. 2023
  • When the fall weather creeps in, so, too, does an urge to seek out ways to terrify ourselves.
    Natalie B. Compton, The Know, 27 Oct. 2019
  • The thought of starting at the beginning with do-re-mi terrified me.
    Gregg Opelka, WSJ, 7 Aug. 2023
  • The pictures showed her looking terrified, bound, and gagged on a bed.
    Emma Dibdin, Harper's BAZAAR, 19 Sep. 2019
  • Joe is, out of the hospital and ready to terrify Nadia.
    Sara Netzley, EW.com, 9 Mar. 2023
  • On the other side of town, some people are terrified by it.
    Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, 16 June 2019
  • Union leaders were terrified by the prospect that Boeing would build the plane elsewhere, with nonunion workers.
    David Koenig, Fortune, 25 Oct. 2024
  • Biden suggested that global leaders are terrified of what Trump’s return to the White House could do to democratic rule around the world.
    Fatima Hussein and Will Weissert, Los Angeles Times, 23 Oct. 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'terrify.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: