stare

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To look directly and fixedly, often with a wide-eyed gaze. See Synonyms at gaze.
2. v. To be conspicuous; stand out.
3. v. To stand on end; bristle, as hair or feathers.
4. v. To look at directly and fixedly: stared him in the eyes.
5. n. An intent gaze.
6. stare down To cause to waver or give in by or as if by staring.
7. 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.
8. idiom. stare (one) in the face To be obvious though initially overlooked: The explanation had been staring him in the face all along.
9. idiom. stare (one) in the face To be imminent or unavoidable: Bankruptcy now stares us in the face.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. 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.
2. To stand out stiffly, as hair; be prominent; be stiff; stand on end; bristle.
3. To shine; glitter; be brilliant.
4. To be unduly conspicuous or prominent, as by excess of color or by ugliness. Compare staring, 3.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. n. The act of one who stares; a fixed look with eyes wide open, usually suggesting amazement, vacancy, or insolence.
8. n. A starling.
9. Stiff; weary.
10. n. The marram or matweed, Ammophila arundinacea: same as halm, 3; also applied to species of Carex.

Wiktionary

1. v. intransitive To look fixedly (at something).
2. n. A persistent gaze.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.), obsolete The starling.
2. 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.
3. v. To be very conspicuous on account of size, prominence, color, or brilliancy.
4. v. obsolete To stand out; to project; to bristle.
5. v. To look earnestly at; to gaze at.
6. n. The act of staring; a fixed look with eyes wide open.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. look at with fixed eyes
2. n. a fixed look with eyes open wide
3. v. fixate one's eyes