Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use scare in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb, adjective

Scare means a minor fright. Example: “Johnny had a bad scare last night.”

Examples of scare by meaning

nounA 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

nounA cause of terror or alarm; a panic; something that inspires fear or dread.

  • a food-poisoning scare

nounA 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

verbTo frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.

  • Did it scare you when I said "Boo!"?
  • Late triumphs of Russian science are scaring the very dogwater out of large elements in our society, and we both fear more "purging" instead of more effort at catching up.1957 October 20, Roy Bedichek, “to John Henry Faulk”, in Letters of Roy Bedichek, Austin, T.X.: University of Texas Press, published 1985...
  • And at least one study has found that when management preannounces a deal it results in lower premiums presumably because it scares off other bidders.2013 February 5, Steven Davidoff Solomon, “Reasons to Be Suspicious of Buyouts Led by Management”, in The New York Times

verb(To be able) to be scared.

  • I don't scare easily.

More sentences with scare

  • After a scare like that, you might need to change your shorts.From the entry shorts
  • Are these "statistics" they cite verifiable, or are they just blowing smoke, trying to scare people?From the entry blow smoke
  • Have you heard the recent scare story about broken glass in baby food?From the entry scare story
  • The loud knock at the door gave me a terrible jump scare.From the entry jump scare
  • They closed the airport because of a bomb scare.From the entry close
  • They shut the airport because of a bomb scare.From the entry shut
  • The lioness roared to scare off the hyenas.From the entry roar
  • Yesterday's thunderboomer gave the kids a good scare.From the entry thunderboomer
  • For God's sake, don't scare me like that!From the entry for God's sake
  • Having to deal with a bomb scare on his first day was a real baptism of fire for John.From the entry baptism of fire
  • We went spelunking in some caves and got quite the scare when we found some skellies in there.From the entry skelly
  • They want to build the prison right on our doorstep; it will only be half a mile away and being that close scares me.From the entry doorstep
  • The idea of self-willed machines, which could decide to take over the world, scares all the people smart enough to create such devices.From the entry self-willed
  • Politicians now use econobabble as a tool of mass confusion, aimed at scaring the public into doing things they don't want to do while narrowing our policy choices.From the entry econobabble
  • We don’t want to scare away our members or provoke a fight with the government.2022 July 18, George Monbiot, “This heatwave has eviscerated the idea that small changes can tackle extreme weather”, in The Guardian. From the entry incrementalism
  • He'll scare you and stab you, and tear out a hairful!2019, James M. Campbell, One Night in the House of the Creepy Santas. From the entry hairful
  • You'll soon see I'm nuttier than squirrel poop, but don't let me scare you away.2019 February 5, Yara Zgheib, The Girls at 17 Swann Street, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN. From the entry nuttier than squirrel poop
  • Invoking cancer is a scare tactic, not a health education strategy.2018 January 2, Samantha D. Gottlieb, “9. The “Tragically Underused” Vaccine”, in Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine. Selling HPV and Cervical…. From the entry scare tactic
  • This quiet is broken suddenly with an initial jump scare of the puppet's iconic laughter.2013, Jeffrey Bullins, “Hearing the Game: Sound Design”, in James Aston, editor, To See the Saw Movies: Essays on Torture Porn and…. From the entry jump scare
  • Police believe a party popper may be behind a bomb scare west of Brisbane.2013, Bridie Jabour, Bomb squad destroys "party popper", The Sydney Morning Herald. From the entry party popper
  • The birds were wild feeding on the bait that the bonito were scaring the bait out.2013, Vernona Kay “Snookie” Fath, A Local Pacific Piscatologist: A Lifetime of Fishing, →ISBN, page 95. From the entry wild feed
  • He would hide in corners and other dark places, and jump out, scaring one half to death.2012, Ruby H. Happel-Holtz, Kool Kat Charlie of Cocoa Beach, →ISBN, page 2. From the entry jump out
  • If spitting is supposed to scare the opponent, it fails miserably. . . .2007 November 23, Jack Wilcox, “Hawking Night In Canada”, in The Star, Toronto, Canada, retrieved 28 Jun 2017. From the entry kid stuff
  • An incidental pleasure is his witty mastery of the scare quote and the square bracket.2006 September 6, “Where Hairsplitting Can Become High Drama”, in New York Sun. From the entry scare quote
  • “With the current budget crunch and the Fingertip case inactive, I couldn’t scare up much enthusiasm.”2005, Stephen J. Cannell, Cold Hit, page 367. From the entry scare up
  • I remember my Mother defusing our scare of summer thunder with an explanation learned from her Mother.2004, Stan Monaghan, In the Wake of Maureen Reilly, page 103. From the entry angels moving the furniture
  • What they use to scare off polar bears is firecrackers and air horns.”2000, Andrew Dequasie, Vermont Mosaic: Whizzers and Other Short Fictional Tales of Vermont, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 31. From the entry fer-instance
  • Shize, man, don't scare me like that, I nearly choked on my toast.1998 December 12, GLC, “Re: Yonder Wacky December Survey!”, in rec.arts.drwho (Usenet). From the entry shize
  • Besides your thighs and upper arms are orange-peely and that always scares women.1994, Michelene Wandor, Annie Castledine, editors, Plays by Women, volume 10, Methuen Publishing, →ISBN, page 58. From the entry orange-peely
  • You shouldn't go scaring me like that, with times as they are.1955, Tolkien. J.R.R., “Chapter 7, Homeward Bound”, in The Return of the King. From the entry woolly-pated
  • And good spots such as the Ruban Bleu can still scare up clinkable drinks for deserving people.1945, Esquire, volume 24, page 184. From the entry clinkable
  • You didn't oughter scare a bloke like that, making out as you wasn't real.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London. From the entry oughter

Meaning of scare

  1. noun A minor fright.
  2. noun A cause of terror or alarm; a panic; something that inspires fear or dread.
  3. noun A device or object used to frighten.

Full definition of scare

Questions about scare in a sentence

How do you use scare in a sentence?
Scare is used as a noun, verb and adjective. For example: “Johnny had a bad scare last night.”
What is a short sentence with scare?
“a food-poisoning scare”
What does scare mean?
Scare means a minor fright.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scare (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use scare in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/scare. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.