scare
Noun:
- A sudden feeling of fear or alarm: A brief, intense feeling of being frightened or startled.
- A widespread state of fear or panic: A situation causing general public anxiety or alarm, often about a potential threat.
Verb:
- To frighten or become frightened: To cause someone to feel sudden fear or alarm, or to experience such fear oneself.
Noun:
- The loud noise gave me a scare. (The sudden loud noise caused me to feel a brief moment of fear.)
- The bomb scare cleared the station. (The alarm about a possible bomb caused the station to be evacuated.)
Verb:
- The horror movie scared the children. (The horror movie frightened the children.)
- I scare easily when I'm home alone. (I become frightened very easily when I am by myself at home.)
"to scare someone away/off": To cause someone to leave or stay away out of fear.
- The guard dog scared off the intruders. (The guard dog frightened the intruders, causing them to leave.)
"to scare someone into doing something": To use fear to pressure someone into a specific action.
- They tried to scare him into confessing. (They tried to frighten him so that he would admit to the crime.)
"to scare up something" (informal): To find or gather something with some difficulty, often at short notice.
- I'll try to scare up some chairs for the meeting. (I will try to find some chairs for the meeting, even though it might be difficult.)
Scared (adjective): Feeling fear; frightened.
- She was too scared to move. (She was too frightened to move.)
Scary (adjective): Causing fear; frightening.
- It was a very scary story. (It was a story that caused fear.)
Scaremonger (noun): A person who spreads alarming rumors or warnings.
- The politician was accused of being a scaremonger. (The politician was accused of spreading unnecessary public fear.)
- Frighten: To make someone afraid.
- Alarm: To cause sudden fear or anxiety about danger.
- Startle: To cause a sudden, brief feeling of fear or surprise.
Scare away/off: To cause someone or something to go away by frightening them.
- The bright lights scared the bats away from the attic. (The bright lights frightened the bats, making them leave the attic.)
Scare into: To use fear to make someone do something.
- The advertisement scared people into buying the security system. (The advertisement used fear to persuade people to purchase the security system.)
Scare up: (Informal) To find or obtain something with effort.
- Can you scare up a pen for me to use? (Can you manage to find a pen for me to use?)
Scare the daylights out of someone: To frighten someone very badly.
- That sudden thunderclap scared the daylights out of me. (That sudden loud thunderclap terrified me.)
Scare someone stiff: To make someone extremely frightened.
- The thought of flying scares her stiff. (The idea of traveling by airplane makes her extremely afraid.)
- a sudden attack of fear
- sudden mass fear and anxiety over anticipated events
- panic in the stock market
- a war scare
- a bomb scare led them to evacuate the building
- cause to lose courage
- dashed by the refusal
- cause fear in
- The stranger who hangs around the building frightens me
- Ghosts could never affright her