Intimidation
noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The act of making timid or fearful or of deterring by threats; the state of being intimidated. countable, uncountable
"It broadly includes all the people with specific recognition for none, and the highest consecration we can make today is a committal of the Republican party to that saving constitutionalism which contemplates all America as one people and holds just government free from influence on the one hand, and unmoved by intimidation on the other."
- 2 the act of intimidating a weaker person to make them do something wordnet
- 3 a communication that makes you afraid to try something wordnet
- 4 the feeling of being intimidated; being made to feel afraid or timid wordnet
- 5 the feeling of discouragement in the face of someone's superior fame or wealth or status etc. wordnet
Example
More examples"A frosty east-west relationship led to a sort of brinkmanship where both NATO and Russia flew military aircraft close to the other side's frontiers or even deliberately made brief incursions into the other side's airspace, either to test air defence capabilities or as part of a pattern of intimidation or coercion."
Etymology
From intimidate + -ion. Compare French intimidation; perhaps modeled on it.
Related phrases
More for "intimidation"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.