What's the difference between fright and spook?

Fright


Definition:

  • (n.) A state of terror excited by the sudden appearance of danger; sudden and violent fear, usually of short duration; a sudden alarm.
  • (n.) Anything strange, ugly or shocking, producing a feeling of alarm or aversion.
  • (n.) To alarm suddenly; to shock by causing sudden fear; to terrify; to scare.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This may be one of the mechanisms by which animals under stress prepare their skeletal muscle for exercise as part of the 'fright and flight' reaction.
  • (2) Shares in London fell sharply for a second successive session on Monday as the world's investors took fright at fears of a meltdown in emerging market economies.
  • (3) That hit stocks as investors took fright, because the iPhone is Apple's biggest revenue generator.
  • (4) Roads were poorly developed and unsafe, hygiene was rudimentary, social security virtually inexistent and perinatal and children's mortality frightfully high.
  • (5) But with his claims last time round being over-inflated, it could be a while before his new rivals take fright.
  • (6) Deployed in an attacking central midfield role behind Peter Crouch, Adam excelled, giving Newcastle quite a few early frights with his incisive through-passes and well-timed late runs into the penalty area.
  • (7) Results correspond to previous studies of coping with chronic illness, and suggest that somatization following physical trauma is better explained with reference to personal meaning than to a fright-model as suggested in the post-traumatic stress criteria of the DSM-III-R.
  • (8) There is a frightful row going on at the IUCN over the decision of its executive director Julia Marton-Lefevre last week to side with Britain over the creation of the marine protected area .
  • (9) Just to put this in context, the Guardian has reported that: "Stock markets took fright on Wednesday as fears grew over the health of the global economy and the ongoing European debt crisis.
  • (10) A fright or shock induced toxic secretion (gel) from the epidermis of the Arabian Gulf catfish, Arius thalassinus, exhibits hemolytic activity when tested against red blood cells from many different sources.
  • (11) This essay -- 1) considers probable risks of retreating in fright from the approach which has significantly reduced the morbidity and mortality of surgical operations over the last 100 years, so that we may balance them against the known and putative risks of transfusion.
  • (12) Analysts immediately wiped £2bn off their forecasts for 2011 – which had been at about £6.5bn – after taking fright at the grim outlook for margins.
  • (13) The City took fright after high court judge Mr Justice Vos announced on Friday morning that he planned to manage the four phone-hacking claims filed against Trinity Mirror's newspapers earlier this week.
  • (14) This trend has resulted in extraordinary progress in many aspects of life, though at the same time created a frightfully specialized lifestyle.
  • (15) If international investors took fright, driving up the cost of serving the UK’s £1.5trn in government debt, he would simply order Threadneedle Street to start creating money and buying up gilts.
  • (16) Alfred Hitchcock's 1950 film, Stage Fright , was criticised for what became known as its "lying flashback" – a long flashback about a murder that we later learn is untrue.
  • (17) But analysts were sceptical of how long the campaign could be sustained, given the fright that investors took at the speed and scale of a slump that wiped out up to $4tn in stock market capitalisation.
  • (18) At the time, she felt so humiliated that she became stricken with stage fright.
  • (19) People’s weak appetite for economic risk may not be the result of pure fear, at least not in the sense of an anxiety like stage fright.
  • (20) There was no evident difference in responsiveness between the four groups, though 3 fish with lesions in the regions ventralis pars dorsalis and ventralis pars ventralis gave fright responses to novel stimuli.

Spook


Definition:

  • (n.) A spirit; a ghost; an apparition; a hobgoblin.
  • (n.) The chimaera.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Top Gear, Robin Hood, Doctor Who, Primeval and Spooks were the company's top five highest-grossing shows sold internationally.
  • (2) Turning on the community suggests they are spooked by the growing support to protect our national treasures.
  • (3) But political corruption and the implacable opposition of the spooks and military to progressive change are the traditional forms of anti-democratic politics, in Britain, as elsewhere.
  • (4) Two witnesses said they thought the gorilla was trying to protect the boy at first, before getting spooked by the screams of onlookers.
  • (5) Backing the spooks against a left-leaning newspaper is, for a Tory prime minister, a no-brainer.
  • (6) Investors were also spooked by a chequered sales performance as breakneck growth stuttered at home and abroad.
  • (7) In the latest CIA coup, America's leading spooks have sent the Twittersphere into a frenzy with their chucklesome debut on social media: "We can neither confirm nor deny that this is our first tweet."
  • (8) She is, therefore, basically the Ruth Evershed (from Spooks) of the ancient world.
  • (9) The 'judge-led inquiry' that never was is shut down and investigating kidnap and torture in freedom's name will be left to a watchdog that never barks and which exonerated the spooks six years ago."
  • (10) If the only black people they see are the "looky looky" men on the beach selling fake watches then the idea of a black holidaymaker might spook them.
  • (11) "She has reinvented family drama in Doctor Who, Robin Hood and Merlin and launched acclaimed contemporary series such as Spooks and Life on Mars as well as Cranford.
  • (12) Any list of the decade's most memorable shows would be dominated by series that began in its early years: The Office, Spooks, Peep Show, The Thick of It, Shameless.
  • (13) Greece spooked investors for a third day running on Thursday as the Athens stock exchange fell 7.35% amid fears over the debt-stricken country’s future in the eurozone.
  • (14) If the desertion of some of their juniors has spooked Egypt's generals, they are being careful not to show it.
  • (15) In the technology world, a still-young and rapidly expanding business posting losses isn't unusual, and it's unlikely to spook many investors.
  • (16) The Daily Mail and the Spectator apparently don't care much if spooks routinely capture and comb all our emails and phone traffic.
  • (17) After our daughter left, my wife would sometimes go to her room – pictures of Spooks, etc – and cry.
  • (18) He is said to have entered the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit premises on 3 April and walked away on 5 April, spooked by the discovery that the fire escape door they had previously used had been locked in the interim.
  • (19) As the debate in ancient Westminster Hall wound on and the libertarians (security must not undermine basic freedoms) proved the better-briefed side, the spook faction got a bit dirty, as is their patriotic duty.
  • (20) That’s how Mussolini got in, that’s how Hitler got in: they took advantage of a situation, a problem perhaps, which humanity was going through at the time, after an economic crisis.” Peña Nieto’s pronouncements are the most forceful so far against Trump, whose rise to the top of the Republican primary races has spooked Mexicans of all social strata.