intimidate
Other forms: intimidated; intimidating; intimidates
You can see "timid" in the middle of intimidate, and to be timid is to be frightened or to pull back from something. When you intimidate, you frighten or make someone afraid. A pet rat might intimidate your sister's friends, keeping them out of your fort.
"To frighten" or "make fearful" is at the root of the verb intimidate. An animal might intimidate a smaller animal by bearing its teeth, and a person can intimidate another by threatening to do something harmful. You can be intimidated with mental or emotional bullying, as well as with something physical: "they were all good spellers, but some of them knew how to intimidate the competition into thinking they didn't have a chance at winning the spelling bee."
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compel or deter by or as if by threatssynonyms: restraintypes:type of:discouragedeprive of courage or hope; take away hope from; cause to feel discouraged
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make timid or fearful“Her boss intimidates her”types:hold overintimidate somebody (with a threat)
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Vocabulary lists containing intimidate
Arnold Spirit, Jr., a young cartoonist who lives on the Spokane Indian reservation, decides to transfer to a school in which he will be the only American Indian student.
Living in Afghanistan under Taliban rule, eleven-year-old Parvana must disguise herself as a boy in order to earn money for her family.
The trial is over, and now the members of the jury hold a man's fate in their hands. Nearly everyone is convinced the defendant is guilty—everyone except Juror 8. He tries to convince the other jurors to acknowledge their preconceptions and examine the case with fresh eyes.