Forms: 1 fyrhto, -u (Northumb. fryhto, fyrihto), 3–4 friȝt, 5 fryȝt, frey(h)t(e, -th, 7– fright. [OE. fryhto, a metathetic form (recorded only in Northumb.) of fyrhto, -u = Goth. faurhtei:—OTeut. *furhtîn- wk. fem., noun of state or quality from *furhto-, forhto- adj., afraid (Goth. faurhts, OS. foroht, for(a)ht, OHG. foraht, OE. forht). The other WGer. langs. have a synonymous derivative of the same root; OFris. fruchta, OS. for(a)hta (MDu. vrucht(e, vrocht), OHG. for(a)hta (MHG. vorhte, mod.Ger. furcht):—OTeut. *(furhtâ, -ôn-) forhtâ, -ôn- str. and wk. fem.]
1. † a. In OE.: Fear in general (obs.). b. In ME. and in mod. use: Sudden fear, violent terror, alarm. An instance of this. Phr. to take fright.
c. 825. Vesp. Hymns, xii. 13. Ðylæs fiondes ðes efestgan facne fyrhtu stille awecce.
c. 1000. Ags. Ps. liv. 20 [lv. 19]. Ne him Godes fyrhtu ȝeorne on drædað.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 1234. His moder wurð neȝ dead for friȝt.
c. 1325. Body & Soul, in Map’s Poems (Camd.), 338. Ne thorte us have friȝt ne fer, that God ne wolde his blisse us sent.
c. 1425. Seven Sag. (P.), 948.
| Tho the knave hadde a fryȝt, | |
| Of the bore he hadde a syȝt. |
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 177/2. Freyhte, or feer … timor, pavor, terror.
1604. Shaks., Oth., II. iii. 232.
| Least by his clamour (as it so fell out) | |
| The Towne might fall in fright. |
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIX. xii. 369. The Mazices … thus beaten down in sundry slaughters, in a foule fright, brake their arraies.
1654. Sir E. Nicholas, in The Nicholas Papers (Camden), II. 96. The greate advance made into this countrye had noe other ende then by giving a generall fright to hinder the enimies taking ye feild againe this yeare.
1770. Junius Lett. xxxviii. 189, note. The minister took fright.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, iv. In my fright, I forgot to take the roundabout way.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 221. The antelopes, nearly exhausted with fatigue and fright, and bewildered by perpetual whooping, made no effort to break through the ring of the hunters, but ran round in small circles.
1847. Tennyson, The Princess, VI. 349.
| And now and then an echo started up, | |
| And shuddering fled from room to room, and died | |
| Of fright in far apartments. |
2. † Anything that causes terror (obs.). Hence (colloq.) a person or thing of a shocking, grotesque, or ridiculous appearance.
1634. W. Tirwhyt, trans. Letters of Mounsieur de Balzac, I. 8. Better to hide my selfe here with your good favour, and my own good quiet, than to beare a shew there with their frights and soure lookes.
1661. Boyle, Style of Script. (1675), 27. As a skilful fowler … catches … some with frights (as Black-birds with a Sparrow-hawk or a Low-bell).
1751. Mrs. Delany, Lett. to Mrs. Dewes, in Life & Corr., 50. I went to Dublin, was two hours and a half choosing worsteds for a friend in the North, who is working a fright of a carpet!
1809. Miss Mitford, in L’Estrange, Life (1870), I. 76. The present race of young men are such a set of frights, that he, though not very handsome, might pass for an Apollo amongst them.
1832. E. Ind. Sketch Bk., II. 174. To be sure, I must say the women are sad frights, very yellow, and mostly so lean!
1864. H. Ainsworth, John Law, III. iii. ‘You mustn’t marry that ridiculous old fright,’ she whispered to Colombe.
ǁ 3. ? Misused for FRET sb.
1668. in Boyle, Hist. Air, xv. (1692), 85. The Storm had seven Paroxysms or Exacerbations, which the Seamen call Frights of Weather.
