Dictionary

terrorise en · VERB

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tres- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *troséyeti Proto-Italic *trozeō Latin terreō Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *-ōs Proto-Italic *-ōs Latin -or Latin terrorbor. Old French terreur Middle French terreurbor. Middle English terrour English terror English -ise English terrorise From terror + -ise.

Meanings

1. (UK, alt-of, nonstandard) Non-Oxford British English standard spelling of terrorize.
   alt of terrorize
   • Though unusual in the Dublin area he knew that it was not by any means unknown for desperadoes who had next to nothing to live on to be abroad waylaying and generally terrorising peaceable pedestrians by placing a pistol at their head… 1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 16: Eumaeus]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC:
   • Crawford’s replacement in Sweet Charlotte was 48-year-old Olivia de Havilland, who had already been terrorised by home invaders in the surprisingly vicious Lady in a Cage (1964), though her career low point was probably being stung to death by killer bees in The Swarm (1978) as disaster movies replaced hagsploitation as the last refuge of the fading Hollywood star. […] Sixty-three-year-old Tallulah Bankhead joined the British studio’s monstrous regiment as the religious fanatic who terrorises her dead son’s girlfriend in Die! Die! My Darling! (1965). 2018 January 18, Anne Billson, “'Hagsploitation': horror's obsession with older women returns”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 08 Mar 2021:

Forms

Deriveds

terrorisation