"give a fright" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe when someone is startled or scared. For example, "The sudden loud noise gave me a fright."
Wales were given a fright but had the class and stamina to withstand the blows.
No majestic life lessons presented themselves in compensation for having been given a fright.
"We had started the tournament well but after beating South Africa we took our foot off the pedal against Samoa and were given a fright.
His third goal in as many games was a perfectly executed nerve settler for a Charlton side who had been given a fright by a bunch of plucky Londoners in the last round.
MEXICO CITY, June 3 (UPI) —Brazil, one of the leading contenders in the World Cup soccer championship, trounced Czechoslovakia today, 4‐1, but West Germany, a finalist in 1966, was given a fright before it defeated Morocco, 2‐1.
The event closed with an explosion of red, white and blue ticker tape – giving a fright to Trafalgar Square's famous pigeons – and the athletes left the stage for their next social event: an audience with the Queen.
The spooky name was then taken up by bartenders to describe a stupefying rum highball; at the turn of the millennium, the supposedly strolling stiffs, capable of giving a fright even to vampires, reappeared to denote a series of computers taken over by evil geeks to be used in concert to bombard a target site with choking data.
The hosts were given a fright just before the interval when Weir's clearance was charged down by Orquera.
