Word.ws English Dictionary

scare-babe

scare-babe noun: something that inspires fear but presents no real danger.

Noun

scare-babe (plural scare-babes)

  1. (archaic) Something that inspires fear but presents no real danger.
    • Let the wicked flatter themselves that all is but talk of any coming to judgment ; non aliud videre patres, aliudve nepotes aspicient; all is but terriculamenta nutricum, mere scare-babes.1862, Thomas Adams, The works: Being the sum of his sermons, meditations, and other divine and moral discourses, page 7
    • In the hope that this is so in the present case, we omit to discuss at length the later applications of the name Gogmagog to the hills of Cambridgeshire, or the sworn society of festive citizens of the eighteenth century, and spare allusion even to the canine hero of one of Hood's ballads, “A...1867 June 8, “Gog and Magog”, in Every Saturday, volume 3, number 75, page 732

Examples of scare-babe in a sentence

  • He hath a burlie frame, and scare-babe visage; he shall do wel enoughe in such charge, though lackyng the use of four fingers.1882, John Gibson Lockhart, Memoirs of Sir Walter Scott: 1818-1821, page 412:
  • Achilles: And now where are your scare-babes ?1982, Eric Herbert Warmington, Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Pacuvius and Accius, page 435:

Forms of scare-babe

pluralscare-babes
alternative formscarbabe
alternative formscarebabe

Questions about scare-babe

What does scare-babe mean?
Scare-babe means something that inspires fear but presents no real danger.
How do you use scare-babe in a sentence?
He hath a burlie frame, and scare-babe visage; he shall do wel enoughe in such charge, though lackyng the use of four fingers.
What part of speech is scare-babe?
Scare-babe is a noun.
What is the plural of scare-babe?
The plural of scare-babe is scare-babes.

Words near scare-babe in the dictionary

  1. scare the life out of
  2. scare the living daylights out of
  3. scare the pants off
  4. scare the shit out of
  5. scare up
  6. scare-babe
  7. scare-babes
  8. scare-beggar
  9. scare-beggars
  10. scare-bug
  11. scare-bugs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scare-babe (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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