Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Filled with fear: afraid of ghosts; afraid to die; afraid for his life.
- adj. Having feelings of aversion or unwillingness in regard to something: not afraid of hard work; afraid to show emotion.
- adj. Filled with regret or concern. Used especially to soften an unpleasant statement: I'm afraid you're wrong.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Impressed with fear or apprehension; fearful: followed by of before the object of fear, where that is not an infinitive: as, to be afraid of death; I am afraid to go.
- Synonyms Afraid, Frightened, Terrified, timid, shy, apprehensive, troubled, suspicious, distrustful. Afraid expresses a less degree of fear than frightened or terrified, which describe outward states. In colloquial language, I am afraid is often nearly equivalent to I suspect, I am inclined to think, or the like, and is regularly used as a kind of polite introduction to a correction, objection, etc., or to make a statement sound less positive: as, I am afraid you are wrong; I am afraid that argument won't hold.
Wiktionary
- adj. Impressed with fear or apprehension; in fear.
- adj. colloquial regretful, sorry
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Afraid comes after the noun it limits. Impressed with fear or apprehension; in fear; apprehensive.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. filled with regret or concern; used often to soften an unpleasant statement
- adj. having feelings of aversion or unwillingness
- adj. feeling worry or concern or insecurity
- adj. filled with fear or apprehension
Etymologies
- From Middle English affrayed, affraied, past participle of afraien ("to affray"), from Anglo-Norman afrayer ("to terrify, disquiet, disturb"), from Old French effreer, esfreer ("to disturb, remove the peace from"), from es- ("ex-") + freer ("to secure, secure the peace"), from Frankish *friþu (“security, peace”), from Proto-Germanic *friþuz (“peace”), from Proto-Germanic *frijōnan (“to free; to love”), from Proto-Indo-European *prāy-, *prēy- (“to like, love”). Compare also afeard. More at free, friend. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English affraied, past participle of affraien, to frighten, from Old French esfraier, esfreer, to disturb, of Germanic origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Well if Hope/Change/Hope/Change is a broken record what the heck is * be afraid, be very afraid*?”
“Captain, we have had hard times of it out there, but _don't be afraid, don't be afraid_.”
“Let him go, and he will walk the streets with a swagger, and boast that you were afraid to touch him -- _afraid_, gentlemen -- and children and women will point after him as the man who has sent nine others into eternity, and who yet walks the streets a free man.”
“And I'm afraid of what'll come to the child without me; I'm _afraid_, Mr. Peter.”
“I'll tell you something I want you to do and you're afraid to do it -- you're _afraid_.”
“I'm afraid -- I'm _afraid_ we couldn't allow you to be a mere figurehead.”
“I'm afraid, my dear Mirliflor," said Queen Selina, "I'm _afraid_ you can't see her before you go.”
“Mr. Ashburn, if you can't say anything more than this -- anything, you understand, which puts you in a position to treat with us, I'm afraid -- I'm _afraid_ I must ask time to think over this.”
“_ -- Do not be afraid to think of it; on the contrary, do think of it, but to say to it, "I am not _afraid_ of you.”
Maîtrise de soi-même par l'autosuggestion consciente. English
“On the threshold he lingers -- he seems afraid -- _afraid_ to approach.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘afraid’.
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RELI - Genesis
Protagonists and relevant words in the Book of Creation (Source: King James Bible)
wrath, leaf, belly, prey, death, break, six, nod, dim, end, inn, judge and 1286 more...
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Fearlobes
EEK! Emotion words and words associated with fear. Let's avoid -phobia words.
terrified, threatened, paralyzed, afraid, tormented, frightened, scared, blench, worried, cowardly, fretful, menaced and 57 more...
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National Library Agenda Summit
nla2006, summit, agenda, library, ala, diversity, education, learning, continuous, scan, environmental, plan and 646 more...
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classic695's Words
delighted, elated, energetic, excited, enthusiastic, elevated, happy, contented, fine, pleased, satisfied, compassionate and 168 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
a, abandon, ability, able, abortion, about, above, abroad, absence, absolute, absolutely, absorb and 4334 more...
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feeling words
twitterpated, loquacious, ambiguous, pensive, sluggish, anxious, adventurous, curious, abandoned, absent-minded, abrasive, abused and 653 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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Theme Prompts
There's a fiction meme (mostly on Livejournal) where writers use words as a prompt for a short story snippet. I've been collecting the words that show up on these lists as prompts for creative writ...
white, black, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, violet, queen, king, prince and 407 more...
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OM3 Lesson 20
throb, throbbing, sip, jaw, sharp, work in, opening, convenient, save, life, cavity, filling and 10 more...
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OM2 Lesson 13
unexpected, downtown, window, beg, rollerblade, knee, knee pad, helmet, bunch, skate, bruise, fit and 11 more...
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Words Against Bush (and/or his admini...
These are words that have been used, might have been used, or could be used in association with the current president and/or his administration. They are only listed as a device to remind the read...
cowboy, naive, ignorant, vengeful, vindictive, grudge, petulant, angry, bully, immature, inexperienced, afraid and 85 more...
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Gabba Gabba Word: some Ramones words
blitzkrieg, pulsating, revved, beat, brat, punk, runt, wanna, boyfriend, chainsaw, massacre, sniff and 84 more...
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Oxford 3000
Oxford 3000 is a list of the most common 3000 words in the English language publishe by OUP.
The keywords of the Oxford 3000 have been carefully selected by a group of language experts and ex...a, an, abandon, abandoned, ability, able, unable, about, above, abroad, absence, absent, absolute and 65 more...
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Emotions: Fear
Words for or describing fear
afraid, frightened, terrified, horrified, petrified, nervous, anxious, scared, shaken, affright, afeared, timid and 3 more...
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Quotables
Wonderful words featured in some of my favourite quotable quotes.
shirty, coffee spoons, vociferate, lies, happiness, insanity, writing, despair, commandeer, heaven, doubt, abstract and 48 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for afraid.
anydelirium 'For to be afraid of oneself is the last horror.' -The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis Feb 20, 2008