Intimidate

//ɪnˈtɪmɪdeɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make timid or afraid; to cause to feel fear or nervousness; to deter, especially by threats of violence. transitive

    "He's trying to intimidate you. If you ignore him, hopefully he'll stop."

  2. 2
    make timid or fearful wordnet
  3. 3
    to compel or deter by or as if by threats wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abashabashadmonishaffrightalarmawe

Example

More examples

"It's no use trying to intimidate me."

Etymology

From Medieval Latin intimidātus, perfect passive participle of Latin intimidō (“to intimidate, terrify”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from in- (“in”) + timidus (“afraid, timid”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix); see timid.

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