2frightening situation 可怕的情况 [countableC]FRIGHTENED an event or situation that makes people feel extremely frightened, especially because they think they may die 〔尤指令人担忧生命安危的〕可怕的事[情况]
terror of
the terrors of war
战争的恐怖
Death holds no terrors for (=does not frighten) me.
The horse galloped off in sheer terror down the path.
absolute/stark terror (=extreme terror)
On his face was an expression of absolute terror.
mortal terror literary (=very great terror)
The crew was in mortal terror of drowning.
phrases
strike terror into somebody’s heart
His fearsome appearance strikes terror into the hearts of his enemies.
flee in terror
The children fled in terror as the barn caught fire.
scream/shriek in terror
She jumped to her feet, screaming in terror.
live in terror
Everyone lived in terror of the religious police.
verbs
inspire terror
The main aim of suicide bombers is to inspire terror in the population.
Examples from the Corpus
terror• Terror-stricken refugeesfled across the border.• There was an expression of frozenterror on Emilia's face.• Shots were fired, and the children fled in terror.• As they saw this wonder each looked in terror at the other, and dropping their eyes they prayed silently.• Her eyes fixed themselves in terror on the door.• The resistancemovement started a campaign of terror.• A feeling of terror gripped us as we listened to his story.• Denver burst from the room, terror in her eyes.• I will never forget the look of sheerterror on her face.• He barely survived the terror of the riverrapids.• The terror, if not the actuality, of the disease has survived into our own time.• Trapped between twinterrors, he allowed his body to sink within the folds of jackets and overcoats.• Sometimes you have a feeling of pure, undilutedterror.• On the high hilltop in the darknessPsyche sat, waiting for she knew not what terror.• Their faces were white, and their eyes were filled with terror.• The men on the quivering, batteredboat were mad with terror.
strike terror into somebody/somebody’s heart• The Slavoppositioncollapsed almost immediately, as if the very name of Charles had struck terror into their hearts.• The very physicaldescription of the Huns provedsufficient in and of itself to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies.• Every crisis would strike terror into the hearts of people everywhere.
reign of terror• One of the H. Fire developmentbrightcolours within only a few days and began a reign of terror.• He led a reign of terror until his conversion to Catholicism in 989.• He was, simultaneously, a lovingfather and sensitivepoet and a ruthlessdictator who presided over a reign of terror.• The Grantley Ripper looked set for a long reign of terror.• Some reformistssuggest it was part of a proposedreign of terror.• The team is based in a local government building, bugged during Ceaucescu's reign of terror.• Heaven knows what his victim had been eating before the battle, but it ended Seiguard's reign of terror, permanently.• The 53-year-old railwayworkerabused his stepdaughter and two step-granddaughters in a 12-year reign of terror.
Originterror
(1300-1400)Old Frenchterreur, from Latinterror, from terrere; → TERRIBLE