frighten

First used by Ottoman military "mehter" bands to frighten and demoralise the enemy, cymbals were a useful tool for an empire on the warpath.

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

I was aware that I didn’t want to frighten my kids with it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026

He’s a student of life as much as he is filmmaking, a humanist who forges connections with spectacular sights of the things that frighten and fascinate us the most.

From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026

Nine countries, at any time, could use their Persian and Oman Gulf shoreline to frighten risk-averse captains and insurers from using the strait.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026

“You’re not nervous, are you? Did that story frighten you?”

From "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson

I have to admit your creativity frightens me a little.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

It frightens me how painfully ironic it feels to cover a film about my industry’s demise when it was “The Devil Wears Prada” that pointed me here in the first place.

From Salon ● May 1, 2026

I’m not here to persuade you to fly if it frightens you that much.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 9, 2026

Desai: It looked at year end like Kevin Hassett’s star was on the rise, but none of the names discussed frightens me.

From Barron's ● Jan. 9, 2026

The thought of Ollie here with me comforts and then frightens me.

From "Girl in the Blue Coat" by Monica Hesse

He was pained and frightened: He’d never seen such a thing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

A place outsiders might dismiss as decadent was also where money was raised, grief was gathered and a frightened community turned nightlife into a lifeline.

From Salon ● Jul. 20, 2026

"The bull was very frightened, it was spooked."

From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026

Injured and too frightened to venture out to work, Juma fell behind on his rent and lost the room he was living in.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026

And then there is the sound of one’s own frightened heart, beating much too loudly as one begins to think one has made a dreadful mistake to ever leave the comforts of home.

From "The Unseen Guest" by Maryrose Wood

While it may be months before the full scale of the devastation this year is known, Thomas said the situation was "very frightening".

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

It inherently asks us to consume these people and needs us to in order to make money, but sometimes consumers want to unhinge their jaws and eat these stars whole, a frightening and unsettling behavior.

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026

He grew up only 10 blocks from the American Museum of Natural History, where a frightening skull display first captured his imagination.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 5, 2026

COVID-19 created the conditions in which conspiracy theories flourish: enormous uncertainty, frightening consequences, rapidly changing information and distrust of institutions.

From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026

It also explains the enduring popularity of guidebooks, and the fact that crawling back through that dark, damp tunnel was not nearly as frightening as the first trip had been.

From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood