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scare
[ skair ]
verb (used with object)
scares me most about the disease is the residual effects on the lungs and heart.
The ducks scared my sister by flying right toward her.
Synonyms: ,
verb (used without object)
- to become frightened:
That horse scares easily.
noun
- a sudden fright or alarm, especially with little or no reason:
I recently had a scare when my computer seemed to be malfunctioning, but it turned out to be nothing.
- a time or condition of alarm or worry:
During the anthrax scare, people were leery of opening envelopes from addresses they didn't recognize.
verb phrase
- to frighten or alarm someone or something so much that they go away and stay away:
Business leaders felt the fuel tax would scare away consumers fearing higher electricity bills and rising gasoline costs.
The bee's sting isn't necessarily deadly, but it's painful enough to scare off predators.
- Informal. to obtain with effort; find or gather:
We want to renovate the kitchen, but first we'll need to scare up some money.
scare
/ ɛə /
verb
- to fill or be filled with fear or alarm
- tr; often foll by away or off to drive (away) by frightening
- informal.tr foll by up
- to produce (a meal) quickly from whatever is available
- to manage to find (something) quickly or with difficulty
brewers need to scare up more sales
noun
- a sudden attack of fear or alarm
- a period of general fear or alarm
adjective
- causing (needless) fear or alarm
a scare story
Derived Forms
- ˈ, noun
Other Word Forms
- · noun
- ·Բ· adverb
Word History and Origins
Origin of scare1
Word History and Origins
Origin of scare1
Idioms and Phrases
- run scared
Synonym Study
Example Sentences
"I'm not angry, I'm not scared, I'm not worried. I'm just looking at him. I'm not wasting energy on these guys."
"It targets activists and civilians, beats and kills them to scare people. But it's not how it was before."
Some locals told the BBC that they feared tourists would be scared away, causing irreparable harm to their businesses and Kashmir's economy.
“There’s nothing that scares me quite like that, and there’s nothing I’m quite as addicted to as that.”
He said the Academy Museum wanted to do drag story time for his movie screenings, and he responded, “Are you insane? My drag queens are made to scare adults, not comfort children.”
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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