Fear is a powerful and universal emotion that everyone experiences at some point in their lives. To express this feeling effectively, it’s helpful to know various idioms and phrasal verbs. Here are 20 expressions related to fear, each with a brief meaning and an example sentence.
1. Scared stiff
Meaning: Extremely frightened
Example: She was scared stiff by the horror movie.
2. Freak out
Meaning: Panic or go crazy
Example: He freaked out when he saw the spider.
3. Chicken out
Meaning: Back out due to fear
Example: He chickened out of the bungee jump.
4. Have cold feet
Meaning: Get nervous
Example: She got cold feet before the wedding.
5. Lose one’s nerve
Meaning: Become too afraid
Example: He lost his nerve and couldn’t speak.
6. Spooked
Meaning: Suddenly frightened
Example: The loud noise spooked the horse.
7. Scare the pants off
Meaning: Frighten severely
Example: That haunted house scared the pants off me.
8. Jump out of one’s skin
Meaning: Be very startled
Example: I almost jumped out of my skin when the phone rang.
9. Shake like a leaf
Meaning: Tremble from fear
Example: He was shaking like a leaf during the storm.
10. Make one’s blood run cold
Meaning: Terrify completely
Example: The ghost story made my blood run cold.
11. Spine-chilling
Meaning: Very frightening
Example: The thriller had a spine-chilling climax.
12. Hair-raising
Meaning: Very scary
Example: The ride was a hair-raising experience.
13. Petrified
Meaning: So scared, unable to move
Example: She was petrified during the earthquake.
14. Scare the daylights out of
Meaning: Shock greatly
Example: The sudden scream scared the daylights out of us.
15. Afraid of one’s own shadow
Meaning: Very easily scared
Example: He’s so nervous, he’s afraid of his own shadow.
16. Bloodcurdling
Meaning: Extremely terrifying
Example: The scream was bloodcurdling.
17. Scare the hell out of
Meaning: Terrify someone
Example: The prank scared the hell out of me.
18. Frozen with fear
Meaning: Unable to move due to fear
Example: She was frozen with fear during the robbery.
19. Scared witless
Meaning: Extremely frightened
Example: The loud bang scared him witless.
20. Shaken up
Meaning: Disturbed by fear
Example: He was really shaken up after the accident.
