26984 words

scare

6 definitions • 14 examples
1
to (make a person or animal) feel frightened:

Examples:

Sudden noises scare her.
She's very brave - she doesn't scare easily.
He scared me out of my wits (= made me extremely frightened) by driving so fast.
Meeting new people scares me stiff/to death (= makes me extremely nervous and worried).
She scared the hell/life/living daylights out of me (= frightened me very much) when she fell out of the tree.
2
a sudden feeling of fear or worry:

Examples:

I got/had a scare (= I was very worried) when I looked at my bank statement this morning!
You gave us a real scare (= frightened us) when you fainted, you know.
3
an occasion when a subject receives a lot of public attention and worries many people, often when there is no real danger:

Examples:

a bomb/health scare
The government are accused of employing scare tactics (= ways of frightening people in order to persuade them to do something).
The papers have been publishing scare stories (= newspaper reports which make people feel unnecessarily worried) about the mystery virus.
4
to feel frightened, or to cause someone to feel frightened:

Examples:

[ T ] Snakes scare me.
[ I ] Jesse doesn’t scare easily.
5

Examples:

You gave me a real scare.
6
a situation in which people are very afraid that something bad will happen:

Examples:

After his health scare, he started exercising more.

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