/ˈskɛə.ɹi/, /ˈskɛː.ɹi/, /ˈskɛə.ɹi/
- informalCausing fear or anxiety
“The tiger's jaws were scary.”
“She was hiding behind her pillow during the scary parts of the film.”
“He watched Conjuring but it was too scary for him.”
- informalUncannily striking or surprising.
“Linda changed her hair, and it’s scary how much she looks like her mother.”
- US, colloquialSubject to sudden alarm; easily frightened.
““Whist! whist!” said Natty, in a low voice, on hearing a slight sound made by Elizabeth, in bending over the side of the canoe, in eager curiosity; “’tis a sceary animal, and it’s a far stroke for a s”
““She’s cursed,” said the skipper; “speak her fair:
I’m scary always to see her shake
Her wicked head, with its wild gray hair,
And nose like a hawk, and eyes like a snake.””
“And let us say to these interests that, until the Buy-It-Made-In-Texas movement co-operates with the farmers, we are going to be a little scary of the snare.”
- informal, not-comparableTo a scary extent; scarily.
“At 199 centimetres and a hundred kilos going up, he was scary big and he found work as a bouncer and enforcer[.]”
“[T]he main reason I don't want to give her a GA is she's so scary fat!”
- Barren land having only a thin coat of grass.
Formsscarier(comparative) · scariest(superlative) · scarey(alternative)