frighten
part of speech
verb (frighten, frightens, frightened, frightening)
meaning for a pupil
1) To frighten means to make someone feel scared. tree →
2) To frighten away or off means to scare an animal or person so they go away. tree →
sense in the lessons
In feelings lessons, children learn what to do when something frightens them: breathe, talk to an adult, remember fears are normal. In nature, shouting can frighten birds and animals, and a frightened animal may bite or run. In stories, ghosts and storms frighten characters. Phrases: frighten away, frighten off, frightened of, frighten to death.
examples
- The thunder frightened the little dog. tree →
- Don't run at the ducks; you'll frighten them. tree →
- Loud noises frighten our baby. tree →
- I was frightened of the dark when I was little. tree →
- The scarecrow frightens birds away from the corn. tree →
- The spooky story frightened everyone. tree →
- A frightened cat may scratch, so leave it alone. tree →
- You frightened me, creeping up like that! tree →
- "You frighten me," said the rose--tree. tree →
note
Frighten = make scared; frightened = feeling scared (frightened of something); frightening = causing fear. «Scare» is the everyday word with the same meaning. The gh is silent: «FRY-ten».
In the corpora
- If a grown-up's anger ever makes you frightened for your safety, tell another trusted adult.
- Tapping on glass, shouting and flash photos frighten animals, which cannot leave as easily as visitors can.
- Videos of tickled pet lorises raising their arms are not cute: the loris is frightened and getting ready to bite.
- It usually means a happy cat, but cats also purr when they are hurt or frightened.
- The frightened old horse rears and backs, and drags the cart into the deep ditch: crash!
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «frighten» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.