frightening

1. 1
   adjective

   Causing fear, or having the power to cause fear; scary.

   The accident gave her a frightening sense of how close she came to death.

   Survivors described the earthquake as the most frightening event of their lives.

   Similarscary, terrifying, alarming, chilling, harrowing

   Oppositereassuring, comforting

   Note

   Built from the verb frighten plus -ing, this adjective has become independent of the participle. It grades like any adjective, with more frightening and most frightening, and it accepts very. That is the quickest way to tell which word you are reading. It can name who or what is affected with to, as when the 1966 Cool McCool theme song calls a sight frightening to anyone who looks at it.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of frighten.

   The storm was frightening coastal residents into evacuating early.

   Frightening away predators is one purpose of the bird's bright coloring.

   Note

   The verb form usually shows itself by taking an object: frightening the timid children, frightening away predators. Frighten means to cause fear in someone, so the participle typically names who is being scared. Drop the object and add very, and you are reading the adjective instead. As a gerund it heads a noun phrase and can open a sentence, sometimes with a particle such as away.

3. 3
   adjectivefiguratively

   Extremely bad; awful or terrible.

   The company's finances were in a frightening state after the scandal.

   Her handwriting is so frightening that no one can read it.

   Similarterrible, awful, dreadful, appalling, shocking

   Note

   Here no one needs to be afraid. The word is stretched figuratively to cover anything very bad, from a company's finances to someone's handwriting. Because it shares its form with the literal "scary" sense, a frightening report could mean alarming or simply very poor, and only context decides. When bad quality, not fear, is the point, awful or terrible leaves no doubt.

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