Word.ws English Dictionary

affrighting

affrighting is the present participle and gerund of affright.

Meaning of affright

Verb

affright (third-person singular simple present affrights, present participle affrighting, simple past and past participle affrighted)

  1. (archaic, transitive) 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.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    Synonyms:
    alarm, appall, dismay, fray, frighten, grill, give someone the shits, harrow, horrify, make someone's blood run cold

See all 3 meanings of affright

Questions about affrighting

What is affrighting the present participle and gerund of?
Affrighting is the present participle and gerund of affright.

Words near affrighting in the dictionary

  1. affrighters
  2. affrightest
  3. affrighteth
  4. affrightful
  5. affrightfully
  6. affrighting
  7. affrightingly
  8. affrightment
  9. affrights
  10. Affrilachia
  11. Affrilachian

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: affrighting (page history and authors); affright (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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