Word.ws English Dictionary

for fear of

for fear of preposition: in order to attempt to prevent the risk of (a particular incident or event occurring).

Preposition

for fear of

  1. (idiomatic) In order to attempt to prevent the risk of (a particular incident or event occurring).
    • [...] but in the damp conditions prevailing the driver sensibly was unwilling to attempt the climb up through Combe Down tunnel without help, for fear of slipping to a standstill in the unventilated bore, [...].1960 March, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 184
    • ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police[…]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?’1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC

Questions about for fear of

What does for fear of mean?
For fear of means in order to attempt to prevent the risk of (a particular incident or event occurring).
What part of speech is for fear of?
For fear of is a preposition.

Words near for fear of in the dictionary

  1. for ever and ever
  2. for ever more
  3. for evermore
  4. for example
  5. for fake
  6. for fear of
  7. for fear that
  8. for free
  9. for fuck's sake
  10. for fucking out loud
  11. for fudge's sake

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: for fear of (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.

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