Link Centre Dictionary

fear

UK/fɪː/ US/fɪə/ very common uk
noun (3) verb (5)

noun

1.
2.

an anxious feeling

  • “care had aged him”
  • “they hushed it up out of fear of public reaction”
Synonyms
3.

a profound emotion inspired by a deity

  • “the fear of God”
Synonyms

verb

1.

be afraid or feel anxious or apprehensive about a possible or probable situation or event

  • “I fear she might get aggressive”
2.

be afraid or scared of; be frightened of

  • “I fear the winters in Moscow”
  • “We should not fear the Communists!”
Synonyms
3.

be sorry; used to introduce an unpleasant statement

  • “I fear I won”
4.

be uneasy or apprehensive about

  • “I fear the results of the final exams”
5.

regard with feelings of respect and reverence; consider hallowed or exalted or be in awe of

  • “Fear God as your father”
  • “We venerate genius”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English feer, fere, fer (“fear”), from Old English fǣr, ġefǣr (“calamity, sudden danger, peril, sudden attack, terrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *fērō, *fērą (“danger”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through, carry forth, try”). Cognate with Dutch gevaar (“danger, risk, peril”), German Gefahr (“danger, hazard, risk”), Danish fare (“danger, hazard, risk”), Faroese and Icelandic fár (“accident, anger, calamity”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk fare (“danger”), Swedish fara (“danger, risk, peril”), Latin perīculum (“danger, risk, trial”), Ancient Greek πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, experiment”), Armenian փորձ (pʻorj, “attempt”). Doublet of peril. The verb is from Middle English feren, from Old English fǣran (“to frighten, raven”), from the noun. Cognate with the archaic Dutch verb varen (“to fear, to cause fear”).

Phrases

  • fear campaign
  • fear gortha
  • fear monger
  • fear not
  • fear of missing out
  • fools rush in where angels fear to tread
  • for fear of
  • for fear that
  • geometry of fear
  • have no fear of ice cold beer
  • I fear
  • never fear

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.