Describe someone who is scared

North Korea's dictator is so intimidating that nobody dares to oppose him. I think that intimidating is the best answer, but just to offer an alternative, consider tyrannical , defined at dictionary.

The employees are scared to ask the boss to extend the deadline because he is feared. That dictator is so feared that nobody dares to oppose him. Infamous, perhaps? It's not quite right, since it means famous for being bad, but it could be used together with some other adjective, e.

Maybe formidable? The word implies both a wariness of the individual and that said wariness is warranted. Source: Oxford Dictionaries. Sign up to join this community.

The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. A word for someone who everyone is scared of?

Ask Question. Asked 4 years, 9 months ago. Active 4 years, 9 months ago. Viewed 29k times. Improve this question. Marked as Duplicate. Marked as Duplicate Marked as Duplicate 1 1 gold badge 2 2 silver badges 7 7 bronze badges. Maybe quite literally terrorizing? Most people worldwide i. If you want to emphasize the unpredictability, you could use mercurial. English is very rich, with one of the largest vocabularies of any language.

It has developed from a complex history and the influence of many different languages. Be sure to pay attention to the etymology of some of these words. Remember, a rich vocabulary can greatly increase your perceived fluency, so learn and memorize several of these useful synonyms and your English will be that much more impressive.

This is one of the most basic ways to talk about someone or something that is easily scared—they are literally full of fear, fearful. This word is good for use in writing, but not necessarily in conversation, and certainly would not be very insulting.

While fearful might be used more to describe someone in a certain situation, cowardly would be more of a character trait—someone who is always easily scared. Therefor, calling someone a coward would be considered an insult.

This is another way to say someone is a coward. We love expressions using colors , right? Like blue meaning someone is sad, or green for jealousy, but what could yellow describe?

Well, in English, if someone is yellow or yellow-bellied they are a coward! This expression is not as common as it once was, and it gives reminds me of something Clint Eastwood might say in an old western film. Getting into more contemporarily common expressions, we have these two idioms. This is an expression you might commonly here on the playground or used between young siblings. Why a cat? This word is the name of a flower or formerly a woman.

Therefor, if you call a man a pansy the general connotation is that he is weak and effeminate sorry girls, but many of these words are associated with the female gender being fearful—not our opinion here at RealLife.

Be careful, as nowadays this expression can be extremely offensive when referring to a male homosexual. This word was apparently created by college students in the s, but the reason is not exactly known, however, it might refer to a character from the popular Popeye comic. Calling someone a wimp might not only indicate their cowardice, but also that they are strange or nerdy. There is also a phrasal verb that you can use, to wimp out.

This means to not do something because of fear. This word is derived from sister sis , and is used to call especially a man girly, effeminate and weak.

Wuss or wussy is a euphemism [a nicer, less offensive word] for pussy see below. In English, we commonly use animal comparisons to describe the attributes of people.

If someone is chicken, it means they are a coward. It makes sense, right? Weak is just the opposite of strong, so it makes sense, if someone is weak they are probably easily scared. This is another common insult when used in this context. This is an expression referring to a dog —when they get scared, they generally put their tail between their legs. So if you have your tail between your legs, you appear frightened or cowardly, or even defeated and humiliated.

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