as in frightening
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Recent Examples of Synonyms for persecutory
Adjective
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The great outdoors can be a big and frightening place, especially for cats who have only seen it from the safety of the great indoors.—
Joan Morris,
Mercury News,
7 July 2025 -
Moreover, if their environment is unpredictable, frightening, or volatile, some children learn that any disagreement could lead to danger and try to bury their feelings to avoid conflict and maintain a sense of peace.—
Lauryn Higgins,
Parents,
7 July 2025
Adjective
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After raids on California farms in June, some crops have been left unharvested, with farm operators fearful of more crackdowns to come.—
Martha McHardy,
MSNBC Newsweek,
12 July 2025
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Red flags might also include your child avoiding school or seeming fearful.—
Hannah Nwoko,
Parents,
10 July 2025
Adjective
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For Bertram, whose family winery has roots deep in the terraced vineyards of the valley, the night was a blur of frantic decisions and terrifying uncertainty.—
Christopher Elliott,
Forbes.com,
13 July 2025
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But this is still grand blockbuster filmmaking: The scene where bombs explode across Gotham is as memorable and terrifying as anything in the series.—
Tim Grierson,
Vulture,
11 July 2025
Adjective
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Finally, Trump’s travel ban could have a chilling effect on future foreign medical applicants to the U.S. Prospective physicians may be deterred from considering medical training programs in America given the challenges and hurdles present in securing visas.—
Omer Awan,
Forbes.com,
6 July 2025
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Critics said the program fueled a narrative of bias and created a chilling effect among the academic community.—
Kate Armanini,
Chicago Tribune,
4 July 2025
Adjective
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The filmmakers used the sounds of babies crying to make a scary noise In the film, the bad people go to a bad afterlife, and they’re taken there by creepy, inky shadow things.—
Drew Mackie,
People.com,
13 July 2025
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He’s got that leading-man energy that, for that part, was just super-fun, this very scary, almost James Bond villain, or Mission: Impossible.—
Alan Sepinwall,
Rolling Stone,
12 July 2025
Adjective
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Kurt's key takeaways Amazon Prime Day scams are growing more sophisticated, and the sheer scale of fake websites, over 120,000, is alarming.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
5 July 2025
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The discussion was added to ACIP’s agenda at the last minute, but more alarming was that thimerosal was being discussed at all.—
Lisa Jarvis,
Twin Cities,
3 July 2025
Adjective
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Getting your car stolen is a horrible experience, but there are ways to deter theft and steps to follow if your vehicle is stolen.—
Charles Singh,
AZCentral.com,
11 July 2025
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Maybe the news reports and images trigger your feelings around a horrible experience at a camp, a personal loss of a child, or even just a loss of feeling safe and in control of the world, said Hurlbert.—
Madeline Holcombe,
CNN Money,
11 July 2025
Adjective
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The market is just full of butcher shops, with the most ghastly whole pigs and halves of steers hanging from horrible hooks.—
John Updike,
New Yorker,
11 July 2025
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Regretfully, my brother—probably the only person who might’ve been able to look past my cowboy getup and glue-on horseshoe moustache and ghastly wax-like exterior—was being punished at home for stealing cigarettes.—
Hazlitt,
Hazlitt,
18 June 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Persecutory.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/persecutory. Accessed 19 Jul. 2025.
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