daring
Americannoun
adjective
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of daring
Explanation
To be daring is to be bold, adventurous, and a little nervy. It’s a quality possessed by people who tend to take risks. If someone says, “I dare you,” and you always do, you’re a daring person. If you're daring, you dare to do things that are risky and even dangerous. A daring mountain climber goes for the top of Mount Everest, and a daring policeman enters the scariest houses to catch a crook. In comics and movies, superheroes are daring. Even quitting your job to start your own business is daring. The seafarers who first traveled across the globe were daring. Daring people are brave, and daring adventures are pretty exciting.
Vocabulary lists containing daring
Vocabulary from Donald Trump's Victory Speech, November 9, 2016
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Words to Describe a Hero or Heroine
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"Escaping to Freedom" and "Follow the Drinking Gourd"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Daring to invite that ridicule, Smith shone a bright light on the free-market road not taken—at least, not yet.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026
Daring to step out as a party of one still draws statements about one’s heroism, as if the simple act of taking charge of your own contentment is on par with battling cancer.
From Salon • Aug. 3, 2025
David M. Friedman, who wrote “The Immortalists: Charles Lindbergh, Dr. Alexis Carrel and Their Daring Quest to Live Forever,” said he had not read Pearlman’s book but found the theory about Lindbergh and Carrel absurd.
From Seattle Times • Mar. 10, 2024
Daring to dance provoked taunts from other inmates, but where before he might have responded with violence, now he laughed it off.
From New York Times • Jun. 7, 2023
Daring, gay, she ran down the corridor again to the hall and peeked out at them from the doorway.
From "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
