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# terrorise

«terrorise» in Mova's school dictionary: **to frighten them very badly, again and again, often by…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (terrorise, terrorises, terrorised, terrorising; US terrorize)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To terrorise people is to frighten them very badly, again and again, often by threats or violence. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/terrorise/#m1)

2) (humour) To terrorise can mean to playfully bother or chase, like a puppy terrorising the cat. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/terrorise/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In history and news, gangs, pirates or armies terrorised towns. In anti-bullying lessons, terrorising another child is bullying and must be reported. In stories, a monster or a dragon terrorises a village. Phrases: «terrorise a town», «terrorised by».

### examples

- A dragon terrorised the village in the old tale. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/terrorise/#x1)
- Pirates terrorised ships along the coast. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/terrorise/#x2)
- Bullying means terrorising someone again and again — tell a teacher. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/terrorise/#x3)
- Our new kitten terrorises the dog. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/terrorise/#x4)
- The wolf terrorised the farm animals. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/terrorise/#x5)
- The gang terrorised the neighbourhood until the police came. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/terrorise/#x6)

### note

UK spelling «terrorise», US «terrorize». Related: «terror», «terrorist» (someone who uses violence to frighten people for political aims). The playful sense is only for light jokes.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «terrorise» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/T/terrorise/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.