Old English · verb
oþ deaþ ondrædan
- Part of speech
- verb
- IPA
- /oθ dæ͜ɑːθ onˈdræː.dɑn/
- Syllables
- oθ · dæ͜ɑːθ · on · ˈdræː · dɑn (5 syllables)
Meaning
to be scared to death (+accusative or genitive of something) (often with a dative reflexive pronoun)
Wit wēndon þæt þæt wǣren uncre hlāfordas, and wit unc þā ondrēdon oþ dēaþ.
We thought they were our masters, and we were scared to death.
late 10th century, Life of Malchus
Etymology
Could be an ancient phrase, since similar phrases exist in modern Germanic languages.
Source: Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · en.wiktionary.org/wiki/oþ_deaþ_ondrædan · CC BY-SA 4.0 licence · Attribution