ppl. a. [f. prec. + -ED1.] That is put into a fright; affected with fright. Also fig.
a. 1721. Prior, Lady’s Looking-glass, 15.
| The lightning flies, the thunder roars, | |
| And big waves lash the frighten’d shores. |
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xi. He suffered the frightened girl to spring to the ground.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, I. xx. Her face wore a frightened look, as if she dreaded the effect of her boldness.
1885. Athenæum, 2 May, 561/3. The police … turn the frightened inmates out of their beds.
b. Const. at. In recent colloquial use frightened of (cf. ‘afraid of’) is common; frightened for in the same sense is Sc.
1827. Carlyle, German Romance, II. 123. I saw thee running, playing on the other side, but thou wert frightened for our little dog.
1830. Whewell, in Todhunter, Acct. Whewell’s Writ. (1876), II. 108. I cannot but be vexed that you persist in tormenting yourself in such a variety of ways, and when other methods fail that you should set seriously about being frightened of my own worshipful self.
1858. Sat. Rev., VI. 310/2. It is not usual for educated people to perpetrate such sentences as … ‘I was frightened of her.’
1881. Mrs. Molesworth, Herr Baby, 113. Baby was at first terribly frightened of him.
1890. [see the vb.]
1897. Daily News, 8 April, 11/1. What were you frightened at?
Hence Frightenedly adv.
1884. E. Fawcett, Rutherford, xxiv. 294. She was on the verge of drawing away from him frightenedly.
1891. H. Herman, His Angel, 10. She was crawling on her hands and knees, looking out upon the big men and the big horses—not in the least frightenedly, but inquiringly.
