Word.ws English Dictionary

put the frighteners on someone

put the frighteners on someone verb: to intimidate or coerce someone using threats of violence.

Verb

put the frighteners on someone (third-person singular simple present puts the frighteners on someone, present participle putting the frighteners on someone, simple past and past participle put the frighteners on someone)

  1. (slang) To intimidate or coerce someone using threats of violence.
    • That scumbag still owes me five grand. Send Billy round to put the frighteners on him.

Forms of put the frighteners on someone

third-person singular presentputs the frighteners on someone
present participleputting the frighteners on someone
past participleput the frighteners on someone
pastput the frighteners on someone

Questions about put the frighteners on someone

What does put the frighteners on someone mean?
Put the frighteners on someone means to intimidate or coerce someone using threats of violence.
What part of speech is put the frighteners on someone?
Put the frighteners on someone is a verb.
What is the past tense of put the frighteners on someone?
The past tense of put the frighteners on someone is put the frighteners on someone.

Words near put the frighteners on someone in the dictionary

  1. put the dead wood on
  2. put the fear of God into
  3. put the feedbag on
  4. put the finger on
  5. put the fries in the bag
  6. put the frighteners on someone
  7. put the genie back in the bottle
  8. put the hammer down
  9. put the heart across one
  10. put the heat on
  11. put the herd on someone

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put the frighteners on someone (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “put the frighteners on someone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/put_the_frighteners_on_someone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.