Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Frightening; frightful; fearful; causing fear.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From fright +‎ -some. Cognate with Scots frichtsom ("frightsome").

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word frightsome.

Examples

  • The tale of the most frightsome hound as ever haunted London, and of Yapper, the Scruffian as learned to speak dog, the Scruffian as tamed Whelp ... well, as near to tamed him as that snarling, slavering, scurrilous cur of a canine ever could be tamed.

    Archive 2010-03-01 Hal Duncan 2010

  • The tale of the most frightsome hound as ever haunted London, and of Yapper, the Scruffian as learned to speak dog, the Scruffian as tamed Whelp ... well, as near to tamed him as that snarling, slavering, scurrilous cur of a canine ever could be tamed.

    A Reminder Hal Duncan 2010

  • The tale of the most frightsome hound as ever haunted London, and of Yapper, the Scruffian as learned to speak dog, the Scruffian as tamed Whelp ... well, as near to tamed him as that snarling, slavering, scurrilous cur of a canine ever could be tamed.

    The Scruffians Project: The Beast of Buskerville Hal Duncan 2010

  • Maybe there's something in the drink, maybe it's the repetition of the dancing that goes on during the feast, with those bucks in their animal heads chasing (but never catching) the young females, who flee continually (but never quite out of reach); perhaps it's just the three days 'delay in getting down to business-whatever it may be, I found myself eyeing that white figure through the flames, and starting to sweat something frightsome.

    Isabelle Estelle Bruno 2010

  • Maybe there's something in the drink, maybe it's the repetition of the dancing that goes on during the feast, with those bucks in their animal heads chasing (but never catching) the young females, who flee continually (but never quite out of reach); perhaps it's just the three days 'delay in getting down to business-whatever it may be, I found myself eyeing that white figure through the flames, and starting to sweat something frightsome.

    Flashman and The Redskins Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1982

  • Maybe there's something in the drink, maybe it's the repetition of the dancing that goes on during the feast, with those bucks in their animal heads chasing (but never catching) the young females, who flee continually (but never quite out of reach); perhaps it's just the three days 'delay in getting down to business-whatever it may be, I found myself eyeing that white figure through the flames, and starting to sweat something frightsome.

    Flashman And The Redskins Fraser, George MacDonald, 1925- 1982

  • "That would be very frightsome," said Gilian with a shiver.

    Gilian The Dreamer His Fancy, His Love and Adventure Neil Munro

  • "Will you go away, and leave Elias and me in that frightsome and desolate-looking mansion?"

    The Mysteries of All Nations Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together With Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales James Grant

  • It was a hoarse, awful, prolonged bellow, as of some giant ox in sore distress, and when it would stop, occasionally, faint and far would come another bellow, mellowed by distance, but sounding unspeakably eerie and frightsome.

    All Aboard A Story for Girls Fannie E. Newberry

  • There are other cases where the religious emotions and ideals are completely subordinated to or become identified with feelings of fear or remorse, the result of fixed ideas of a shameful, distressing or frightsome character.

    The Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1916

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.