Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To look directly and fixedly, often with a wide-eyed gaze. See Synonyms at gaze.
- v. To be conspicuous; stand out.
- v. To stand on end; bristle, as hair or feathers.
- v. To look at directly and fixedly: stared him in the eyes.
- n. An intent gaze.
- stare down To cause to waver or give in by or as if by staring.
- idiom. stare (one) in the face To be plainly visible or obvious; force itself on (one's) attention: The money on the table was staring her in the face.
- idiom. stare (one) in the face To be obvious though initially overlooked: The explanation had been staring him in the face all along.
- idiom. stare (one) in the face To be imminent or unavoidable: Bankruptcy now stares us in the face.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To gaze steadily with the eyes wide open; fasten an earnest and continued look on some object; gaze, as in admiration, wonder, surprise, stupidity, horror, fright, impudence, etc.
- To stand out stiffly, as hair; be prominent; be stiff; stand on end; bristle.
- To shine; glitter; be brilliant.
- To be unduly conspicuous or prominent, as by excess of color or by ugliness. Compare staring, 3.
- Synonyms Gaze, Gape, Stare, Gloat. Gaze is the only one of these words that may be used in an elevated sense. Gaze represents a fixed and prolonged look, with the mind absorbed in that which is looked at. To gape is in this connection to look with open mouth, and hence with the bumpkin's idle curiosity, listlessness, or ignorant wonder: one may gape at a single thing, or only gape about. Siare expresses the intent look of surprise, of mental weakness, or of insolence; it implies fixedness, whether momentary or continued. Gloat has now almost lost the meaning of looking with the natural eye, and has gone over into the meaning of mental attention; in either sense it means looking with ardor or even rapture, often the delight of possession, as when the miser gloats over his wealth.
- To affect or influence in some specified way by staring; look carnestly or fixedlv at; hence, to look at with either a bold or a vacant expression.
- n. The act of one who stares; a fixed look with eyes wide open, usually suggesting amazement, vacancy, or insolence.
- n. A starling.
- Stiff; weary.
- n. The marram or matweed, Ammophila arundinacea: same as halm, 3; also applied to species of Carex.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Zoöl.), obsolete The starling.
- v. To look with fixed eyes wide open, as through fear, wonder, surprise, impudence, etc.; to fasten an earnest and prolonged gaze on some object.
- v. To be very conspicuous on account of size, prominence, color, or brilliancy.
- v. obsolete To stand out; to project; to bristle.
- v. To look earnestly at; to gaze at.
- n. The act of staring; a fixed look with eyes wide open.
WordNet 3.0
- v. look at with fixed eyes
- n. a fixed look with eyes open wide
- v. fixate one's eyes
Etymologies
- From Middle English staren, from Old English starian ("to stare"), from Proto-Germanic *starājanan (“to be fixed, be rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *stere-, *strē- (“strong, steady”). Cognate with Dutch staren ("to stare"), German starren ("to stare"), Norwegian stare ("to stare"), German starr ("stiff"). More at start. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English staren, from Old English starian; see ster-1 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Because then that bald spokesguy with the BIG VOICE!! and unblinking stare is on my TV every bloody commercial break.”
“Do you think your disapproving stare is calming my baby?”
Last Time I Checked, Babies Were People Too - Her Bad Mother
“Giant eyes stare from the roofs of tin shanties in Brazil.”
The Washington Post: TED 2011 winner: JR is a street artist papering the world with his photographs
“Shut up, Mulligan!" was Bert Rhine's command, in receipt of which he received a venomous stare from the cripple.”
“One hulking sweet potato weighed in at 4 pounds on its own, drawing an admiring stare from the first lady.”
The Huffington Post: First Lady Hosts Students For White House Fall Harvest
“In other words, all five either disagree with my view on stare decisis or have made the tactical judgment to capitalize on the fact that * other* folks, at least sometimes, will feel obliged to follow * this* precedent, out of some kind of a belief in stare decisis.”
“That aside, Professor Paulsen's post fails to recognize that there is value in stare decisis from a litigants 'perspective.”
“I hope that my baleful "You're an ass" stare is as good as my friend says it is.”
“The action scenes were well done and they had a digital age feel as the destructive power of Medusa's stare is replicated in the ever-prevalent security cameras and webcams.”
“Even Scalia has been critical of Thomas for this; as he recently told Thomas's biographer, Ken Foskett, Thomas "does not believe in stare decisis, period.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘stare’.
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SMILE and other emotive verbs
Single verbs that describe expression or emotional reaction. "He __ed" (smiled/gulped/scoffed...)
smile, beam, sneer, scoff, giggle, laugh, snigger, scowl, grin, leer, wince, grimace and 97 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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Grasses
Grasses, and words about grasses.
Prairie grasses names are found in this list.
Names of medical marijuana strains can be found elsewhere.cheatgrass, downy brome, chess, brome, bronco-grass, graminoid, grassland, phytolith, steppe, tallgrass prairie, sword grass, panicle and 323 more...
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I am : looking
To describe facial expressions when attending to something.
look, peer, glance, stare, glare, glower, ogle, peek, observe, scrutinize, gaze, gape and 18 more...
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Alternatives to LOOK
Look is a boring word.
admire, focus, contemplate, gawk, inspect, scan, scrutinized, spot, study, observe, gaze, stare and 3 more...
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animal group
Names for Groups of Animals.
clever madeupicals and human groups are fine.
( open list, randomness )
also see:
swarm, herd, flock, group, pack, school, shoal, click, gang, army, colony, tribe and 81 more... -
Here's Looking At You Kid
Synonyms or funny substitutes for the word 'look'.
gaze, glare, saw, penned, peeked, poked, bore, blazed, glance, search, gaped, gawped and 41 more...
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What's That Pokémon Name?
Words used to create the names of Pokémon, which are usually portmanteaux.
bulb, dinosaur, ivy, venus, char, salamander, squirt, turtle, blast, tortoise, water, caterpillar and 525 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 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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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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eloise's Words
embrace, perfect, imagine, dance, water, color, echo, hollow, sorrow, beauty, impossible, violet and 438 more...
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Don't Say a Word
Nonverbals!
shrug, wink, smile, pucker, blink, point, nod, gaze, avert, blush, slouch, straighten and 20 more...
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ofravens goes bird-watching
Various names for groups of birds.
dissimulation, bouquet, parliament, chattering, convocation, exaltation, covey, congress, deceit, descent, charm, flush and 74 more...
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Halloweenie: Down in the Ground Where...
By the Pogues, on their CD "Red Roses for Me."
Hello boys I've been away
On a bit of a holiday
To the land where the rivers freely flow
And the cattle roam on the wil...devil, ghost, bar, skunk, drunk, corpse, putrefying, slammed, moor, shore, dunes, stare and 28 more...
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five-letter words that start with "st"
start, stare, stair, stain, strap, strop, strip, stink, stank, stuck, stack, stock and 47 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for stare.

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