affright means great fear, terror, fright. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 79 out of 100.
Why this word is great
AFFRIGHT — [Noun, Verb, Adjective] A state of profound, paralyzing terror; the act of inspiring such terror; or the condition of being so terrified. From Middle English afrighten, from Old English āfyrhtan, equivalent to the intensive prefix a- + the verb fright (to fear). Unlike "alarm," which is the sudden klaxon jolting you upright, or "appall," the cold, sinking horror at a moral obscenity, affright is the marrow-deep chill of the truly, existentially dreadful. It is the cold clutch at the heart in a pitch-black room when a floorboard groans without cause; it is the shape that moves in the absolute dark of a forgotten cellar; it is the sudden, total absence of warmth as your blood seems to still in your veins—the body’s mute testament to a terror that precedes and exceeds all thought, the ancient, instinctive knowledge that something sees you, and means you ill.
noun
- Great fear, terror, fright.“No one for a moment dreamed of the possible occurrence of any thing in the course of a few hours which would fill every mind with horror, and cause even the dark-hearted Martina to tremble with affright.”
verb
- To inspire fright in; to frighten, to terrify.“VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that affrights our Children ſo.”
adj
- afraid; terrified; frightened“So that thou shalt not need I say, to feare or be affright, of all the shafts that Hie by day, nor terrours of the night.”