Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To strike with sudden fear; alarm. See Synonyms at frighten.
- v. To become frightened: a child who scares easily.
- n. A condition or sensation of sudden fear.
- n. A general state of alarm; a panic: a bomb scare that necessitated evacuating the building.
- adj. Serving or intended to frighten people: scare stories; scare tactics.
- scare up Informal To gather or prepare with considerable effort or ingenuity: managed to scare up some folding chairs for the unexpected crowd.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Timid; shying.
- To frighten; terrify suddenly; strike with sudden terror or fear.
- Synonyms To daunt, appal, frighten; scare represents the least of dignity in the act or in the result; it generally implies suddenness.
- To become frightened; be scared: as, a horse that scares easily.
- n. A sudden fright or panic: particularly applied to a sudden terror inspired by a trifling cause, or a purely imaginary or causeless alarm.
- n. An obsolete form of scar.
- Lean; scanty; scraggy.
- To fasten (two pieces of wood) by splicing; join by fitting; splice.
- n. A joint in carpentry; a splice; one of the parts of a fishing-rod; etc.
- n. In golf, the narrow part of the neck of the club where it is fastened to the shaft, then glued and bound with whipping.
Wiktionary
- n. A minor fright
- n. A cause of slight terror; something that inspires fear or dread.
- v. To frighten, terrify, especially in a minor way.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm.
- n. Fright; esp., sudden fright produced by a trifling cause, or originating in mistake.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a sudden attack of fear
- n. sudden mass fear and anxiety over anticipated events
- v. cause to lose courage
- v. cause fear in
Etymologies
- Middle English skerren, scaren, from Old Norse skirra, from skjarr, timid.
Examples
“In the U.S., food irradiation is used for various products, including ground beef, but most retailers resist the practice, lest the word irradiated'' on the label scare off customers.”
The Wall Street Journal: When Precaution Trumps Public Safety
“The 3 Geeks Super-Sized Swimsuit Spectacular - while the whole comics/swimsuits thing is very 1990s and pretty much played out by the Amazing Heroes specials long before Marvel and Image started doing them, don't let the title scare you off...this is classic 3 Geeks material.”
“If you couldn't care less about money except perhaps about making more of it, like most of us do, don't let the title scare you away.”
“QUIJANO: Yet without mentioning Republicans by name, the president blasted what he called scare tactics by opponents, calling the notion of a bureaucratic death panel a lie, and he insisted illegal immigrants would not be covered, prompting an outburst from South Carolina GOP Congressman Joe Wilson.”
“QUIJANO: Yet, without mentioning Republicans by name, the president blasted what he called scare tactics by opponents, calling the notion of a bureaucratic "death panel" a lie and he insisted illegal immigrants would not be covered, prompting an outburst from South Carolina GOP Congressman Joe Wilson.”
“Today, he warned against what he called scare tactics in the debate over Social Security.”
“President Bush warned that his critics are using what he called scare tactics to discredit his proposal.”
“President Obama took the bully pulpit to New Hampshire on Tuesday to counter what he called scare tactics from opponents of his health-care reform efforts, but it's clear that the health debate has become a proxy for a bigger fight over whether the federal government is assuming too much control over the economy.”
“As soon as Andrea Villegas tried to lock up La Mexicana #2, masked men gave her what she called the scare of her life - shoving a gun in her back and forcing her inside.”
“Their political operatives made a plan to suck up to wealthy donors and just plain "scare" the less educated among us.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘scare’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Stuffie: Monging
Stuff you mong.
iron, war, fish, rumor, squid, word, scare, coster, cheese, hate, scandal, fear and 4 more...
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Viking Words
From http://www.vikingrune.com/2009/10/viking-words-in-english/
anger, birth, bleak, bloom, call, cast, crawl, crook, die, fellow, gear, get and 36 more...
bilby BOO! Jul 25, 2008