scare

---

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /skɛə/
• (America) IPA: /skɛɚ/

Noun

scare (plural scares)

1. A minor fright.

   Johnny had a bad scare last night.

2. A cause of slight terror; something that inspires fear or dread.

   a food-poisoning scare

3. A device or object used to frighten.

Synonyms

• fright

Related terms

• scary

Translations

• French: peur
• German: Schreck
• Italian: timore
• Portuguese: susto
• Russian: испу́г
• Spanish: susto

Translations

• Italian: spavento, paura
• Russian: пу́гало

Verb

scare (scares, present participle scaring; past and past participle scared)

1. To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.

   Did it scare you when I said "Boo!"?

   • 1851, Henry VI, Part 3 (III:i, v. 6-7), William Shakespeare

     That cannot be; the noise of thy crossbow / Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost.

   • 1995 The Langoliers

     (Laurel Stevenson) Would you please be quiet? You're scaring the little girl.

     (Craig Toomey) Scaring the little girl?! Scaring the little girl?! Lady!

Synonyms

• frighten
• terrify
• See also Thesaurus:frighten

Translations

• French: effrayer
• German: erschrecken, beängstigen, ängstigen
• Italian: spaventare, impaurire, spaurire
• Portuguese: assustar
• Russian: пуга́ть
• Spanish: asustar, atemorizar, espantar

Adjective

scare

1. lean; scanty

---

This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.005