In this paper, domestic violence is understood as everyday terrorism. The effect of terrorism rests on its ability to exert some control over everyday geographies. I focus on the ways in which emotions have been understood to play a role in this coercion, by reviewing ideas from medical, political and feminist science. Moving between analysis of global terrorism and analysis of intimate partner violence muddies the boundaries between forms of violence that are framed as public, political and spectacular; and forms of violence that are framed as private, apolitical and mundane. How do understandings of terror change when fear is framed as having liberatory as well as oppressive potential? Rather than identifying parallels, the aim is to explore the diversity of geographies of terror, but at the same time to question the different levels of academic, public and policy attention given to its various forms. I will refer to emerging findings from research with survivors that forefronts their analysis and agency.