scare
UK/skɛə//skɛɚ/
scare noun: a minor fright.
Noun
scare (plural scares)
- A minor fright.
- Johnny had a bad scare last night.
- England were held to a draw after surviving a major scare against Switzerland as they were forced to come from two goals behind to earn a point in the Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley.2011 June 4, Phil McNulty, “England 2 - 2 Switzerland”, in BBC
- A cause of terror or alarm; a panic; something that inspires fear or dread.
- a food-poisoning scare
- A device or object used to frighten.
- But I admit the possibility of their being used as "scares" for either birds of prey or snakes, or both.1948, Alec H. Chisholm, Bird Wonders of Australia, page 153
Verb
scare (third-person singular simple present scares, present participle scaring, simple past and past participle scared)
- To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
- Did it scare you when I said "Boo!"?
- That cannot be; the noise of thy crossbow / Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost.c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard...
- (To be able) to be scared.
- I don't scare easily.
Adjective
scare (comparative more scare, superlative most scare)
scare meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
scare in Hindi
- to frighten
- डराना ḍarānā
scare in Tamil
- பயமுறுத்து, பயம், மிரட்சி, அச்சமூட்டு, அரண்டு போ, பயப்படு
scare in Urdu
- scare
- اچانک ڈر ačānak ḍar
scare in Bengali
- ভয় দেখানো, আতঙ্কিত করা
More languagesFewer languages
- scare in Telugu
- భయపెట్టడానికి
- scare in Malayalam
- പേടിപ്പിക്കുക, ഞെട്ടിക്കുക, ഭയപ്പെടുത്തുക, ഞെട്ടൽ
- scare in Kannada
- ತಲ್ಲಣ, ಗಾಬರಿ, ಕಳವಳ, ದಿಗಿಲು
- scare in Punjabi
- ਡਰਾਉਣ ਲਈ
- scare in Gujarati
- ગભરાવવા માટે
- scare in Odia
- ଭଯ଼ଭୀତ କରିବା
- scare in Sanskrit
- जवति jávati, जू jū
- scare in Arabic
- أَفْزَعَ ʔafzaʕa
- scare in Persian
- ترساندن tarsândan
- scare in Myanmar
- ခြောက် hkrauk
Examples of scare in a sentence
- After a scare like that, you might need to change your shorts.
- Are these "statistics" they cite verifiable, or are they just blowing smoke, trying to scare people?
- Have you heard the recent scare story about broken glass in baby food?
Synonyms of scare
Forms of scare
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | scares |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | scares |
| present participle | scaring |
| past participle | scared |
| past | scared |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more scare |
| superlative | most scare |
Origin of scare
From Middle English sker, skere (“terror, fright”), from the verb Middle English skerren (“to frighten”) (see below).
From Middle English scaren, skaren, scarren, skeren, skerren, from Old Norse skirra (“to frighten; to shrink away from, shun; to prevent, avert”), from Proto-Germanic *skirzijaną (“to shoo, scare off”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to swing, jump, move”). Related to Old Norse skjarr (“timid, shy, afraid of”). Cognate with Scots skar (“wild, timid, shy”), dialectal Norwegian Nynorsk skjerra, dialectal Swedish skjarra and possibly Old Armenian ցիռ (cʻiṙ, “wild ass”).
Words formed from scare
- bomb scare
- jump-scare
- jump scare
- lavender scare
- red scare
- scarebug
- scare campaign
- scare chord
- scaredeer
- scarefest
- scarefire
- scareful
- scarehead
- scareless
- scareline
- scare line
- scarelore
- scareproof
- scare quote
- scaresome
- scare tactic
- scareware
- scary
- Y2K scare
- jumpscare
- bescare
- bird-scarer
- outscare
- overscare
- scareable
- scare away
- scare-babe
- scare-beggar
- scarecrow
- scared
- scaredy-cat
- scare into
- scaremonger
- scare off
- scare out of one's wits
- scarer
- scare-sleep
- scare someone out of their mind
- scare someone out of their wits
- scare someone to death
- scare story
- scare straight
- scare the bejeebers out of
- scare-the-birds
- scare the daylights out of
- scare the hell out of
- scare the hoes
- scare the horses
- scare the life out of
- scare the living daylights out of
- scare the pants off
- scare the pants off of
- scare the shit out of
- scare up
- scariant
Phrases with scare
Words that rhyme with scare
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- declare
- hair
- Sinclair
- where
- ayr
- care
- layer
- mayor
- parterre
- fare
- glare
- lair
- pear
- prayer
- snare
- compare
- dare
- 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
- tare
- trillionaire
- Voltaire
- aware
Questions about scare
- What does scare mean?
- Scare means a minor fright.
- What is scare in Hindi?
- Scare in Hindi is डराना (ḍarānā). See Scare meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is scare?
- Scare can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce scare?
- Scare is pronounced /skɛə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of scare?
- The plural of scare is scares.
Words near scare in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: scare (page history and authors); scare (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اچانک ڈر (Urdu) (page history and authors); Scare (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scare (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scare (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scare (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scare (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scare (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); scare (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); जवति (Sanskrit) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scare.ogg.
Cite this entry: “scare.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scare. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.