Link Centre Dictionary

scare

UK/skɛə/ US/skɛɚ/ common
verb (2) noun (2)

verb

1.

cause fear in

  • “The stranger who hangs around the building frightens me”
  • “Ghosts could never affright her”
Synonyms
2.

noun

1.

sudden mass fear and anxiety over anticipated events

  • “panic in the stock market”
  • “a war scare”
  • “a bomb scare led them to evacuate the building”
Synonyms
2.

Origin

From Middle English scaren, skaren, scarren, skeren, skerren, from Old Norse skirra (“to frighten; to shrink away from, shun; to prevent, avert”), from Proto-Germanic *skirzijaną (“to shoo, scare off”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to swing, jump, move”). Related to Old Norse skjarr (“timid, shy, afraid of”). Cognate with Scots skar (“wild, timid, shy”), dialectal Norwegian Nynorsk skjerra, dialectal Swedish skjarra and possibly Old Armenian ցիռ (cʻiṙ, “wild ass”).

Phrases

  • bomb scare
  • jump scare
  • lavender scare
  • red scare
  • scare away
  • scare campaign
  • scare chord
  • scare into
  • scare line
  • scare off
  • scare out of one's wits
  • scare quote

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

See also

Causes

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.