Terrify someone; cause extreme panic or fear. Variants: frighten out of one's wits; scare stiff/silly/to death/the living daylights out of; scare the pants off.
Examples:
- When the lights went out, she was scared out of her wits.
Origin: First put together in 1697; 'scare stiff' from 1905; 'frighten to death' from Dickens 1840
Synonyms: scare stiff, frighten to death, scare the pants off