/skɛə/, /skɛɚ/, /skɪə(ɹ)/
OriginFrom Middle English sker, skere (“terror, fright”), from the verb Middle English skerren (“to frighten”) (see below).
- A minor fright.
“Johnny had a bad scare last night.”
“England were held to a draw after surviving a major scare against Switzerland as they were forced to come from two goals behind to earn a point in the Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley.”
- A cause of terror or alarm; a panic; something that inspires fear or dread.
- A device or object used to frighten.
“But I admit the possibility of their being used as "scares" for either birds of prey or snakes, or both.”
- transitiveTo frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
“Did it scare you when I said "Boo!"?”
“That cannot be; the noise of thy crossbow / Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost.”
“Late triumphs of Russian science are scaring the very dogwater out of large elements in our society, and we both fear more "purging" instead of more effort at catching up.”
- intransitive(To be able) to be scared.
Formsscares(plural) · scares(present, singular, third-person) · scaring(participle, present) · scared(participle, past) · scared(past) · more scare(comparative) · most scare(superlative)