(3) Your sons don't intimidate me. And neither do you.
(4) The gang tried to intimidate the bank manager.
(1) 他吓得不敢作声。
(2) 鲍勃威胁证人保持沉默。
(3) 你的儿子们威胁不了我,你也一样。
(4) 那帮歹徒企图恐吓银行经理。
◉Usage notes
You can see "timid" in the middle of intimidate, and to be timid is to be frightened or to pull back from something. When you intimidate, you frighten or make someone afraid. A pet rat might intimidate your sister's friends, keeping them out of your fort.
To frighten or "make fearful" is at the root of the verb intimidate. An animal might intimidate a smaller animal by bearing its teeth, and a person can intimidate another by threatening to do something harmful. You can be intimidated with mental or emotional bullying, as well as with something physical: "they were all good spellers, but some of them knew how to intimidate the competition into thinking they didn't have a chance at winning the spelling bee."
◉Collins
1. [VERB 动词]恫吓；恐吓；威胁 If you intimidate someone, you deliberately make them frightened enough to do what you want them to do. [V n] [V n into -ing]
① Jones had set out to intimidate and dominate Paul...
琼斯开始恐吓并控制保罗。
② Attempts to intimidate people into voting for the governing party did not work.
胁迫人们为执政党投票的企图没有成功。
intimidation
③ ...an inquiry into allegations of intimidation during last week's vote.
