arch. [f. AFFRIGHT v. + -MENT.]
† 1. The action of frightening or terrifying, intimidation; also, a cause of fear. Obs.
a. 1614. Donne, Βιαθανατος (1648), 215. Which accompanie it with so much horror and affrightment.
1673. Ladies Calling, II. ii. § 36. 77. Invisible affrightments, the beloved methods of nurses and servants.
1721. Strype, Eccl. Mem., IV. 67. Affrightments … which much terrified the mean-spirited.
2. The fact or state of being frightened; fright, sudden fear or alarm.
1604. T. Wright, Passions of Mind, II. iii. 65. Choler causeth … feares, affrightments, ill successe, and such like.
1693. Locke, Educ., § 167. Passionate Words or Blows from the Tutor fill the Child’s Mind with Terror and Affrightment.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa, vii. (1811), I. 47. [I looked] at him, when I could glance at him, with disgust little short of affrightment.
a. 1834. Lamb, Dram. Writers, 531. Their terrors want dignity, their affrightments are without decorum.
