dare
UK/dɛə//dɛ(ə)ɹ/
dare verb: to have enough courage (to do something).
Verb (1)
dare (third-person singular simple present dares or (modal) dare or (obsolete) dast, present participle daring, simple past and past participle dared or (obsolete) durst)
- To have enough courage (to do something).
- I wouldn't dare (to) argue with my boss.
- No one dares (to) criticize his decisions.
- Synonyms:
- venture
- To defy or challenge (someone to do something).
- I dare you to kiss that girl.
- Don't back away just yet / From destinations set / I dare you to be proud / To dare to shout aloud / For convictions that you feel / Like sound from bells to peal1980, “Double Dare”, in In the Flat Field, performed by Bauhaus, Track 1
- To have enough courage to meet or do something, go somewhere, etc.; to face up to.
- Will you dare death to reach your goal?
- To wrest it from barbarism, to dare its solitudes.1886, Clarence King, The Century
- To terrify; to daunt.
- For I have done those follies, those mad mischiefs, Would dare a woman.c. 1608–1611, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Maid’s Tragedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act IV...
- To drive larks to the ground by scaring them (for instance, with mirrors or hawks) so they can be caught in nets.
- I have an hobby can make larks to dare1516, John Skelton, Magnificence, Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 35
- dare us, like larks1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio)...
Noun (1)
dare (plural dares)
- A challenge to prove courage.
- I did it just for a dare.
- The quality of daring; venturesomeness; boldness.
- It lends a lustre […] / A large dare to our great enterprise.c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Defiance; challenge.
- Childish, unworthy dares / Are not enough to part our powers.[1611?], Homer, “(please specify |book=I to XXIV)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer...
- Sextus Pompeius / Hath given the dare to Caesar.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- In the game truth or dare, the choice to perform a dare set by the other players.
- When asked truth or dare, she picked dare.
Verb (2)
dare (third-person singular simple present dares, present participle daring, simple past and past participle dared)
Noun (2)
dare (plural dares)
- A small fish, the dace
- The Dare is not unlike a Chub, but proportionably less; his Body is more white and flatter, and his Tail more forked.1766, Richard Brookes, The art of angling, rock and sea-fishing
Proper noun (1) capitalized: DARE
DARE
- Acronym of Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
- Acronym of Dictionary of American Regional English.
Proper noun (2) capitalized: Dare
Dare (plural Dares)
- A surname.
dare meaning in Punjabi, Odia, Sanskrit and Sinhala
dare in Punjabi
- ਹਿੰਮਤ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ
dare in Odia
- ସାହାସ କରିବା
dare in Sanskrit
- to have courage
- धृष्णोति dhṛṣṇoti
dare in Sinhala
- to have courage
- නිර්භීත nirbhīta
More languagesFewer languages
- dare in Arabic
- جَرُؤَ jaruʔa, تَحَدَّى taḥaddā, وَاجَهَ wājaha
- dare in Malay
- berani, cabar
- dare in Indonesian
- jurit malam
- dare in Persian
- جرأت کردن jor'at kardan, جرأت داشتن jor'at dâštan
- dare in Vietnamese
- dám, thách
Examples of dare in a sentence
- They daredn't tell me the truth, even though I dared (to) acknowledge my mistake to them.
- I daren't tell him I've had an affair with another man.
- Servants would hardly dare to enter the room where, glooming and glowering, the maned and bearded head looked up from his papers as a lion from a bone.1926, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Land of Mist:
Synonyms of dare
Forms of dare
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | dares |
| third-person singular present modal | dare |
| present participle | daring |
| past participle | dared |
| past | dared |
| third-person singular present (obsolete) | dast |
| past participle (obsolete) | durst |
| past (obsolete) | durst |
| Noun | |
| plural | dares |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Dares |
Origin of dare
From Middle English durren, from Old English durran, from Proto-West Germanic *durʀan, from Proto-Germanic *durzaną (“to dare”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰedʰórse (“to dare”), reduplicated stative of the root *dʰers- (“to be bold, to dare”), an *-s- extension of *dʰer- (“to hold, support”). Cognates Cognate with Low German dören, Dutch durven, German thüren, Sanskrit दधर्ष (dadhárṣa), but also with Ancient Greek θρασύς (thrasús), Albanian nder, Lithuanian drįsti, Russian дерза́ть (derzátʹ).
From Middle English daren, from Old English darian.
English surname, spelling variant of Dear.
Words formed from dare
Phrases with dare
Words that rhyme with dare
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- declare
- hair
- Sinclair
- where
- ayr
- care
- layer
- mayor
- parterre
- fare
- glare
- lair
- pear
- prayer
- snare
- compare
- rare
- share
- swear
- ware
- wear and tear
- Ayer
- blare
- flair
- forbear
- Kerr
- laissez faire
- mousquetaire
- pare
- prepare
- repair
- stare
- unfair
- yare
- -ware
- abear
- aflare
- despair
- glair
- heir
- impair
- Pierre
- reair
- scare
- tare
- trillionaire
- Voltaire
- aware
Questions about dare
- What does dare mean?
- Dare means to have enough courage (to do something).
- What is dare in Punjabi?
- Dare in Punjabi is ਹਿੰਮਤ ਕਰਨ ਦੀ. See Dare meaning in Punjabi.
- How do you use dare in a sentence?
- They daredn't tell me the truth, even though I dared (to) acknowledge my mistake to them.
- What part of speech is dare?
- Dare can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce dare?
- Dare is pronounced /dɛə/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of dare?
- The past tense of dare is dared.
Words near dare in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dare (page history and authors); DARE (page history and authors); Dare (page history and authors); dare (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); dare (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-dare.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dare.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dare. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.