frightened

adjective

fright·​ened ˈfrī-tᵊnd How to pronounce frightened (audio)
: feeling fear : made to feel afraid
a badly frightened child
The farmer was hurrying out into the road, and his wife was standing at the gate, looking very frightened.Anna Sewell

Examples of frightened in a Sentence

I am frightened of the dark
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
The frightened Maltese was swimming in circles, but Desalvo and his colleagues were able to pull her to safety. Rebecca White, New York Daily News, 10 May 2025 The first few attempts to free the dog failed, then the rescuers cleverly used a tarp to hoist the frightened animal to safety. Kendall Malinchock, USA Today, 9 May 2025 Lopez was seen in shocking footage, since shared publicly, of the man grabbing a frightened cat, later identified as Mittens, and hurling her across a front yard not once, but twice, before she was picked up again. Alice Gibbs, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 May 2025 At the same time, Trump and his team are dangling cash to get frightened migrants already in the U.S. to voluntarily depart. Alexis Simendinger, The Hill, 6 May 2025 See All Example Sentences for frightened

Word History

Etymology

from past participle of frighten

First Known Use

1591, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of frightened was in 1591

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Frightened.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/frightened. Accessed 28 May. 2025.

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