Does "freak somebody out" mean "make somebody angry"?

This is an excerpt from the Longman Dictionary Of Contemporary English.

freak out

phrasal verb informal
to become very anxious, upset, or afraid, or make someone very anxious, upset, or afraid

People just freaked out when they heard the news.

freak somebody out

The whole idea freaked me out.

I'm curious whether freak out has the meaning of "make somebody angry"?


To "freak somebody out" is to startle or upset or scare them. They can get angry as a consequence, but that is not the direct meaning.

You really freaked me out when you told me the tests showed you had cancer. I'm glad it turned out to be a false positive.

You really freaked me out when you lied to me about the test showing I had cancer. Did you think that was funny, you jerk?

Both first sentences use "freaked out" to express consternation. But the consequences are different in each.


The confusion can come by the fact that upset could be synonym with angry in some case. But in this context, upset takes the meaning of distressed.

Freaking out is more expressing some kind of irrational fear or distress, to the point of not acting like one usually do.


to "freak someone out" does not directly imply that you make someone angry. This idiom usually means to scare them, cause them to be frightened, stressed, or anxious. There is an explanation here: http://www.theenglishstudent.com/1/post/2013/10/scared-try-using-these-three-idioms.html