How to Use terrify in a Sentence

terrify

verb
  • The thought of dying alone terrifies her.
  • Hell, my wife is terrified for me right now.
    — Mara H. Gottfried, Twin Cities, 26 Jan. 2026
  • And that should terrify the rest of the league.
    — Rohan Nadkarni, NBC news, 27 Oct. 2025
  • You must be terrified that your youngest wants to be a movie star.
    — Marc Malkin, Variety, 19 July 2023
  • There are things to be terrified of.
    — Hanif Abdurraqib, New Yorker, 6 Feb. 2026
  • As a child, he must be terrified.
    — Ashleigh Fields, The Hill, 13 Dec. 2025
  • They were terrified of that song.
    — Edward Segarra, USA Today, 18 June 2026
  • Fewer said she and her dog were terrified by the booms.
    — Tori Apodaca, CBS News, 27 Jan. 2026
  • My wife and kids called terrified that our cats were going to be burned alive.
    — Ivan Kashinsky, Smithsonian Magazine, 21 Jan. 2025
  • This was what terrified me the most, and has had the most impact on my life.
    — Aruna Viswanatha, WSJ, 27 Sep. 2018
  • Many of these same users are terrified that the agents will replace their jobs.
    — Gene Marks, Forbes.com, 6 July 2025
  • Anyone with a fear of heights should be terrified.
    — Susan Shelley, Daily News, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Rick backed up against the wall, terrified that Tony would come for him next.
    — Erika Andersen, Good Housekeeping, 26 June 2018
  • How can people not be terrified of this?
    — Gene Marks, Forbes.com, 15 Aug. 2025
  • Grasso is terrified of being found out as the mole in the task force.
    — Grace Byron, Vulture, 20 Oct. 2025
  • The ones at the bottom are terrified of the future and should be.
    — Eric Johnson, Recode, 7 Nov. 2018
  • What is your trick for acting terrified in front of the camera?
    — William Earl, Variety, 14 Mar. 2025
  • But Kurosawa knows how to terrify through sheer force of will.
    — Matt Prigge, NBC News, 25 Oct. 2017
  • This is what terrified me the most, and has had the most lasting impact on my life.
    — Fox News, 27 Sep. 2018
  • Their efforts to make the world safe again for measles and polio should terrify you.
    — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 5 Mar. 2024
  • And yet the prospect of being funny, at least on the page, terrified her.
    — Zahir Janmohamed, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2023
  • The one thing politicians are terrified of is that they won’t be elected.
    — Sarah Mower, Vogue, 1 Sep. 2017
  • Mice know cats can smell them, and cats emit chemicals that terrify mice.
    — Bestreviews, Mercury News, 10 Mar. 2026
  • As Cody points out, the process was far from easy, if not terrifying at times.
    — Liza Lentini, SPIN, 7 May 2024
  • The slayings had shocked and terrified the country three decades ago, the trail long gone cold.
    — Los Angeles Times, 11 Oct. 2019
  • Parents there said they were terrified at the prospect of sending their kids back to school in the fall.
    — USA Today, 23 Mar. 2023
  • Kids who were terrified of snakes stepped a little closer.
    — Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 1 Feb. 2026
  • 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 first time terrifies every founder.
    — Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 10 Sep. 2025
  • Trump’s rise may very well have to do with the fact that some people are terrified of a changing world.
    — Jennifer Wright, Harper's BAZAAR, 21 Sep. 2017

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.

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