afear
afear verb: to imbue with fear; to affright, to terrify.
Verb
afear (third-person singular simple present afears, present participle afearing, simple past and past participle afeared)
- To imbue with fear; to affright, to terrify.
- Moreouer the perfit beleue of this article, worketh in all true chriſten people, aloue to continue in this vnitie, and afeare to be caſte out of the ſame, and it worketh in them that be ſinners and repentant, great comforte, and conſolacion, to obteine remiſſion of ſinne, by vertue of Chriſtes...1543 June 7, Henry VIII of England, “The Nynthe Article. The Holy Catholike Churche.”, in A Necessary Doctrine and Erudicion for Any Chrysten Man, Set furth by the Kynges Maiestye of Englande, &c....
- Be not affeard, the Iſle is full of noyſes, / Sounds, and ſweet aires, that giue delight and hurt not.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
Forms of afear
| third-person singular present | afears |
|---|---|
| present participle | afearing |
| past participle | afeared |
| past | afeared |
| alternative form | affear |
Origin of afear
From Middle English aferen (“to frighten, terrify”), from Old English āfǣran (“to terrify, dismay”), from ā- (perfective prefix) + fǣran (“to frighten; to devour, raven”), from fǣr (“sudden danger, calamity, ambush; a blitz”), from Proto-Germanic *fērō (“danger”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to try, dare, risk”).
Words formed from afear
Words that rhyme with afear
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- spear
- career
- fear
- here
- steer
- appear
- cavalier
- cheer
- leer
- pioneer
- queer
- volunteer
- adhere
- beer
- chandelier
- deer
- financier
- pier
- premier
- privateer
- sheer
- veer
- vizier
- austere
- bombardier
- brigadier
- cashmere
- commandeer
- disappear
- endear
- grenadier
- interfere
- mere
- mountaineer
- peer
- sear
- tear
- tier
- unclear
- arrear
- bier
- blear
- cameleer
- cashier
- chiffonier
- cohere
- fakir
- farseer
Questions about afear
- What does afear mean?
- Afear means to imbue with fear; to affright, to terrify.
- What part of speech is afear?
- Afear is a verb.
- What is the past tense of afear?
- The past tense of afear is afeared.
Words near afear in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: afear (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “afear.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/afear. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.