Befright

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To fill with fright; make afraid; scare; frighten transitive

    "[…] 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?"

Example

More examples

"[…] 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?"

Etymology

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.