scare up

Idioms  

1. Also,. Assemble or produce with considerable effort, as in We managed to scare up extra chairs for the unexpectedly large audience, or He managed to scrape together enough cash to buy two more tickets. The first term alludes to scare in the sense of “flush game out of cover” and dates from the mid-1800s; the variant, alluding to scratching or clawing for something, was first recorded in 1549. Also see scrape up an acquaintance.

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Example Sentences

Which is why I have no doubt that, even as we speak, Jerry Dipoto and Justin Hollander are burning the phone and text lines to see what sort of deal they can scare up.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 27, 2023

Horror movies “Antlers” and “Last Night in Soho” opened nationwide and struggled to scare up strong ticket sales, leaving last weekend’s champion “Dune” to rule over box office charts again.

From Reuters • Nov. 1, 2021

There, he managed to scare up some chow, but it was pancakes again, “which disappointed me very much,” he wrote.

From Washington Post • Sep. 1, 2020

Rudy, in a last-ditch bid to scare up some new material, tape-records the rhymes, jokes and tall tales of a group of homeless men.

From New York Times • Oct. 2, 2019

Swooping along fencerows to scare up game, she searched intently.

From "Frightful's Mountain" by Jean Craighead George

Related Words

• acquire
• bring in
• collect
• derive
• draw
• gain
• get
• make
• obtain
• pick up
• realize
• reap
• receive
• score
• secure
• win