intimidate

CEFRC1

/ɪnˈtɪmɪdeɪt/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To frighten someone so they feel less confident or able to act.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

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

Examples

  • It's no use trying to intimidate me.

  • Sami brought all of his friends to try to intimidate Farid.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
2
Parts of speech
1
Citations
1
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

More examples

In context

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

  • You can't intimidate us.

  • His father tried to intimidate his son into staying, threatening him with banishment and a possible beating.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The bully's threats were meant to blank the smaller child into giving up his lunch money.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

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.