SCARE
| Pronunciation (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does scare mean?
• SCARE (noun)
The noun SCARE has 2 senses:
1. sudden mass fear and anxiety over anticipated events
2. a sudden attack of fear
Familiarity information: SCARE used as a noun is rare.
• SCARE (verb)
The verb SCARE has 2 senses:
1. cause fear in
2. cause to lose courage
Familiarity information: SCARE used as a verb is rare.
Dictionary entry details
• SCARE (noun)
Meaning:
Sudden mass fear and anxiety over anticipated events
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Synonyms:
scare; panic
Context examples:
panic in the stock market / a war scare / a bomb scare led them to evacuate the building
Hypernyms ("scare" is a kind of...):
anxiety; anxiousness (a relatively permanent state of anxiety occurring in a variety of mental disorders)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "scare"):
red scare (a period of general fear of communists)
Meaning:
A sudden attack of fear
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Synonyms:
panic attack; scare
Hypernyms ("scare" is a kind of...):
fear; fearfulness; fright (an emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger (usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight))
• SCARE (verb)
Meaning:
Cause fear in
Classified under:
Verbs of feeling
Synonyms:
scare; frighten; fright; affright
Context examples:
The stranger who hangs around the building frightens me / Ghosts could never affright her
Hypernyms (to "scare" is one way to...):
excite; shake; shake up; stimulate; stir (stir the feelings, emotions, or peace of)
Cause:
dread; fear (be afraid or scared of; be frightened of)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "scare"):
bluff (frighten someone by pretending to be stronger than one really is)
awe (inspire awe in)
terrify; terrorise; terrorize (fill with terror; frighten greatly)
intimidate (make timid or fearful)
alarm; appal; appall; dismay; horrify (fill with apprehension or alarm; cause to be unpleasantly surprised)
consternate (fill with anxiety, dread, dismay, or confusion)
spook (frighten or scare, and often provoke into a violent action)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Sentence examples:
Sam cannot scare Sue
The bad news will scare him
Meaning:
Cause to lose courage
Classified under:
Verbs of feeling
Synonyms:
scare away; frighten off; frighten away; daunt; scare off; pall; scare; dash
Context example:
dashed by the refusal
Hypernyms (to "scare" is one way to...):
intimidate; restrain (to compel or deter by or as if by threats)
Sentence frame:
Something ----s somebody
Sentence example:
The performance is likely to scare Sue
