- intended to frighten someone or to force or stop someone’s action through fear: We will not be sucked in to your macho agenda by intimidating threats of violence or seductive promises of power.
- causing timidity, hesitancy, or anxiety, especially because of difficulty or risk; daunting: The day-to-day operations of the healthcare environment can be overwhelming and intimidating to the point of paralysis.
- causing someone to feel overawed or cowed, as through force of personality or superior display of wealth, talent, rank, etc.: All the others had gone to Harvard or Yale, and I was just a country hick; it was intimidating, for sure.
