Word.ws English Dictionary

befright

befright verb: to fill with fright; make afraid; scare; frighten.

Verb

befright (third-person singular simple present befrights, present participle befrighting, simple past and past participle befrighted)

  1. (transitive) To fill with fright; make afraid; scare; frighten
    • […] I would so near this knot to certainty,
      That its appearance shall befright the bride,
      Until, despairing, she shall say the wish
      To be a nymph again; then should she know me?1881, James Alexander Wickersham, Aliso and Acne, page 84
    • For ourselves till befright, an' till show his oul' spite,
      Whin he'd miss'd all the prachis he'd cum for, so far
      Himself, the untutor'd oul' haythen, beschuterd
      Us, ears over head all with boilin'-hot tar.1884, Cruck-a-Leaghan (pseud.), Lays and legends of the north of Ireland

Examples of befright in a sentence

  • 'Goods will be safer there, stacked tight, than in our flimsy shops,' he said, and then went on his way to warn and befright our other neighbours.2006, Mary Hooper, Petals in the Ashes, page 137:
  • All round terrors befright him, and they scatter at his feet.2011, The Wisdom Books: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes:

Forms of befright

third-person singular presentbefrights
present participlebefrighting
past participlebefrighted
pastbefrighted

Origin of befright

From be- + fright. Compare German befürchten (“to be afraid of; fear”).

Questions about befright

What does befright mean?
Befright means to fill with fright; make afraid; scare; frighten.
How do you use befright in a sentence?
'Goods will be safer there, stacked tight, than in our flimsy shops,' he said, and then went on his way to warn and befright our other neighbours.
What part of speech is befright?
Befright is a verb.
What is the past tense of befright?
The past tense of befright is befrighted.

Words near befright in the dictionary

  1. befriendings
  2. befriendment
  3. befriendments
  4. befriends
  5. befrient
  6. befright
  7. befrill
  8. befrilled
  9. befrilling
  10. befrills
  11. befringe

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: befright (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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Cite this entry: “befright.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/befright. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.