intimidate

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɪmɪdeɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

intimidate (third-person singular simple present intimidates, present participle intimidating, simple past and past participle intimidated)

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

   Synonym: abash

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

   • 2018, Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death, HarperVoyager, page 168:

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

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:intimidate

Derived terms

• unintimidate

Related terms

• intimidatingly
• intimidation
• intimidator
• intimidatory
• timid

Translations

to make timid or fearful

Albanian: please add this translation if you can Arabic: أَخَافَ (ʔaḵāfa), أَرْعَبَ (ʔarʕaba), خَوَّفَ (ar) (ḵawwafa), أَرْهَبَ (ʔarhaba) Armenian: վախեցնել (hy) (vaxecʻnel) Azerbaijani: qorxutmaq (az), qorxuzmaq, xoflandırmaq, qorxuya salmaq, vəhmələndirmək Belarusian: пало́хаць impf (palóxacʹ), запало́хваць impf (zapalóxvacʹ), спало́хаць pf (spalóxacʹ), застра́шваць impf (zastrášvacʹ), застрашы́ць pf (zastrašýcʹ), пужа́ць impf (pužácʹ), спужа́ць pf (spužácʹ) Bulgarian: пла́ша (bg) impf (pláša), спла́швам (bg) impf (splášvam), спла́ша pf (spláša), изпла́швам (bg) impf (izplášvam), изпла́ша pf (izpláša) Catalan: intimidar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 威脅 / 威胁 (zh) (wēixié), 恐嚇 / 恐吓 (zh) (kǒnghè) Czech: zastrašovat impf, zastrašit pf Danish: skræmme (da) Dutch: intimideren (nl), inschuchteren Esperanto: timigi Estonian: hirmutama, heidutama Finnish: pelotella (fi), uhkailla (fi) French: intimider (fr) Galician: intimidar (gl) Georgian: დაშინება (dašineba) German: einschüchtern (de) Greek: εκφοβίζω (el) (ekfovízo) Ancient: ἐκφοβέω (ekphobéō) Hebrew: הפחיד (hifkhíd), איים (iyém) Hindi: धमकाना (hi) (dhamkānā) Hungarian: megfélemlít (hu) Ido: timidigar (io) Italian: intimidire (it) Japanese: 脅す (ja) (おどす, odosu), 威嚇する (ja) (いかくする, ikaku suru) Khmer: បំភ័យ (km) (bɑmphɨy) Korean: 협박하다 (ko) (hyeopbakhada), 위협하다 (ko) (wihyeophada) Latvian: please add this translation if you can Lithuanian: įbauginti Macedonian: заплашува impf (zaplašuva), заплаши pf (zaplaši), застрашува impf (zastrašuva), застраши pf (zastraši) Maori: whakaweti, whakahakahaka, kapatau Mongolian: айлгах (mn) (ajlgax) Norwegian: Bokmål: skremme (no) Occitan: intimidar (oc) Polish: zastraszać (pl) impf, zastraszyć pf Portuguese: intimidar (pt), amedrontar (pt) Romanian: intimida (ro) Russian: пуга́ть (ru) impf (pugátʹ), испуга́ть (ru) pf (ispugátʹ), запу́гивать (ru) impf (zapúgivatʹ), запуга́ть (ru) pf (zapugátʹ), устраша́ть (ru) impf (ustrašátʹ), устраши́ть (ru) pf (ustrašítʹ) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: застраши́вати impf, за̀страшити pf Roman: zastrašívati (sh) impf, zàstrašiti (sh) pf Slovak: zastrašovať impf, zastrašiť pf Slovene: zastraševati impf, zastrašiti pf Spanish: intimidar (es), amedrentar (es) Swedish: skrämma (sv) Telugu: బెదిరించు (te) (bediriñcu), భయపెట్టు (te) (bhayapeṭṭu) Thai: ขู่ (th) (kùu), ข่มขู่ (th) (kòm-kùu) Tibetan: please add this translation if you can Turkish: sindirmek (tr), yıldırmak (tr) Ukrainian: поло́хати impf (polóxaty), споло́хувати impf (spolóxuvaty), споло́хати pf (spolóxaty), страха́ти impf (straxáty), страши́ти impf (strašýty), застраши́ти pf (zastrašýty), ляка́ти impf (ljakáty), заля́кувати impf (zaljákuvaty), заляка́ти pf (zaljakáty) Urdu: دھمکانا (dhamkānā) Vietnamese: dọa nạt (vi), hăm dọa (vi), trộ (vi) Zazaki: tersanen, xof kerden

References

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “intimidate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “intimidate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Spanish

Verb

intimidate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of intimidar combined with te