scared stiff

Trump Escalates Attack on Jeff Sessions, Calling Him ‘Scared Stiff’

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

The broadside included some of President Trump’s harshest language yet against the attorney general, whom he criticized as “Missing in Action.”

Adjective[edit]

scared stiff (not comparable)

1. In the fear-induced state (literal or figurative) where a person seems incapable of movement.

   He was scared stiff, like a deer in the headlights, by the vampire walking toward him.

scared stiff

Utterly terrified; so scared that one cannot move. I was scared stiff when I heard someone in our kitchen in the middleof the night. Janet still seems to be scared stiff after the encounter with the mountain lion.

scared stiff

Fig. badly frightened. We were scared stiff by the robber. I was scared stiff when the dog growled at me.