How to Use terrorize in a Sentence

terrorize

verb
  • As a child she terrorized her younger siblings.
  • She was terrorized by nightmares.
  • Employees were terrorized into accepting abysmal working conditions.
  • Illinois nurse who was terrorized by her ex turned to the court for help.
    Tim Stelloh, NBC News, 1 Dec. 2023
  • The second part is set in the '70s and takes place at Camp Nightwing, a summer camp terrorized by an evil killer.
    Amy MacKelden, ELLE, 30 Aug. 2023
  • Through the letters, the stalker starts to terrorize Dean, Nora and their kids.
    Katherine Schaffstall, The Hollywood Reporter, 13 Oct. 2022
  • Ah, the new Gossip Girl—a show in which teachers surveil and terrorize rich teens for the sake of #content.
    Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 3 Dec. 2021
  • Teachers of color have been run out of their jobs, chased across the country, and are being terrorized with death threats.
    Janai S. Nelson and Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, Parents, 24 Jan. 2024
  • How have Phoebe Cates, Corey Feldman and the rest of the cast coped with being terrorized by little green monsters in the 1984 classic?
    John Russell, Peoplemag, 8 June 2024
  • Armed gangs terrorize and abduct people for ransom in the northwest.
    James Bwala, ABC News, 25 Feb. 2023
  • Dianne and her sisters, Yvonne and Lynn, were terrorized.
    Democrat-Gazette Staff From Wire Reports, Arkansas Online, 30 Sep. 2023
  • There’s also a vendor area for those who want to terrorize their wallets.
    Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Oct. 2023
  • These were women who made a living out of terrorizing men, and Anita was at their helm.
    Elizabeth Winder, Rolling Stone, 24 July 2023
  • Then Bukele decided to confront the gangs that had terrorized El Salvador for decades.
    Randy Ertll, Los Angeles Times, 23 Aug. 2023
  • The movie, which depicts a New England town terrorized by a flesh-hungry great white, may also have gotten a lot of sharks killed.
    The Week Staff, The Week, 19 Aug. 2023
  • Of course, my mother is not a giant red panda raging through the city, crushing cars and terrorizing the hottest boy band in the world.
    Domee Shi, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Mar. 2023
  • The thought of 5½ more years of President Biden terrorizes them more than computers and robots do.
    WSJ, 21 July 2023
  • What starts as a peaceful escape turns into a nightmare when a masked man begins to terrorize them in the most gruesome ways.
    Dallasnews.com Staff, Dallas News, 17 Aug. 2023
  • And that’s why both women have been shaken to see a mob of people march on the Capitol, some waving a flag that has been used to terrorize Black people.
    Washington Post, 21 Sep. 2021
  • All summer, the long-range drone program had terrorized Moscow.
    Valerie Hopkins, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2023
  • In its catalog, the auction house says the Deinonychus inspired the raptors who terrorize the park’s visitors in the 1993 film.
    Joseph Pisani, WSJ, 13 May 2022
  • Don Mancini's killer doll who does it all, Chucky, has terrorized children and adults across America for over 35 years.
    Rendy Jones, EW.com, 1 Aug. 2024
  • But in the early months of 1948, Zionist forces terrorized Palestinians.
    Emily Bazelon, New York Times, 1 Feb. 2024
  • In the movie, a group of high schoolers are terrorized by a masked killer at their prom — only to learn it’s all connected to an incident from their childhood.
    Keith Langston, Peoplemag, 24 Nov. 2023
  • The series looked at the ties between the paramilitary groups that terrorized Northern Ireland during the Troubles and the present-day drug trade.
    Meredith Blake, Los Angeles Times, 14 June 2024
  • After seeing their live broadcasts terrorized by sonic disruptions, the ladies of The View are making some noise of their own.
    Joey Nolfi, EW.com, 24 Apr. 2023
  • Escobar said the visitors are not there to terrorize anyone, just to enjoy the ambiance and soak in the movies and memories.
    Rodney Ho, ajc, 14 Mar. 2022
  • The place where this metaphor falls apart is that, unlike the oppressed groups First Kill is alluding to … the monsters actually do kill and terrorize people all the time.
    Vulture, 4 Aug. 2022
  • The country has grown weary of endless bloodshed, of the gangs that terrorize them, of the lawlessness that has inspired so many to travel more than 1,000 miles to the American border.
    New York Times, 28 Apr. 2022
  • The home’s haunting saga continued with George and Kathy Lutz, who subsequently moved in and claimed they were terrorized by paranomal happenings inside the home, among them oozing walls and appearances of demonic figures.
    Charlotte Collins, Architectural Digest, 25 June 2024

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'terrorize.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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