scare
Americanverb (used with object)
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scares,
present (3rd person singular)
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scared,
past participle, past
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scaring
present participle
verb (used without object)
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scares,
present (3rd person singular)
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scared,
past participle, past
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scaring
present participle
noun
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scares
plural
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a sudden fright or alarm, especially with little or no reason.
I recently had a scare when my computer seemed to be malfunctioning, but it turned out to be nothing.
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a time or condition of alarm or worry.
During the anthrax scare, people were leery of opening envelopes from addresses they didn't recognize.
verb phrase
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scare away / off to frighten or alarm someone or something so much that they go away and stay away.
Business leaders felt the fuel tax would scare away consumers fearing higher electricity bills and rising gasoline costs.
The bee's sting isn't necessarily deadly, but it's painful enough to scare off predators.
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scare up to obtain with effort; find or gather.
We want to renovate the kitchen, but first we'll need to scare up some money.
verb
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to fill or be filled with fear or alarm
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(tr; often foll by away or off) to drive (away) by frightening
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informal (tr) (foll by up)
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to produce (a meal) quickly from whatever is available
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to manage to find (something) quickly or with difficulty
brewers need to scare up more sales
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noun
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a sudden attack of fear or alarm
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a period of general fear or alarm
adjective
Synonym Usage
See frighten.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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scaresimple
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scaressimple
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have scaredperfect
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has scaredperfect
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am scaringprogressive
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are scaringprogressive
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is scaringprogressive
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have been scaringperfect progressive
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has been scaringperfect progressive
Past
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scaredsimple
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had scaredperfect
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was scaringprogressive
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were scaringprogressive
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had been scaringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of scare
First recorded in 1150–1200; (for the verb) Middle English skerren, from Old Norse skirra “to frighten,” derivative of skjarr “timid, shy”; (for the noun) late Middle English skere, derivative of the verb
Explanation
Scare is a verb that means frighten or intimidate. You might be embarrassed to admit that you don't want to go to the beach with your friends because of how much seagulls scare you. Questions on a test you're unprepared for might scare you, and so might a barking dog. To scare is to spook, startle, or cause fear, and what scares your best friend most (like losing his job) might not be what would scare you more than anything (like discovering a huge snake in your shower). You can also use scare as a noun, as in "It gave me such a scare when all my friends jumped out and yelled, 'Surprise!'"
Vocabulary lists containing scare
Terrify
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Terrify
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Terrify
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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.
See Examples For:
Steinem had her own health scare with breast cancer in 1986, and underwent a lumpectomy.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
“We don’t think it’s a bluff,” said Citrini in its report, but it did concede Bessent understands the value of an ability to scare investors into doing his job for him.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026
The missile wasn’t functional and was likely intended to scare off aircraft attempting to down the drone, Zaruba said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Her remarkable lack of experience may help explain why Graham didn’t scare anyone out of the race when she announced her plan to keep the seat.
From Slate ● Aug. 25, 2026
If there were any wild hogs around, he could scare the daylights out of them with his deep voice.
From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls
She told The Hollywood Reporter, external in 2023 that while she thought AI was "going to be great for a lot of things, like science and medicine", the idea of it replacing humans "scares me".
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
The prospect that the government can “take your house” if you are on Medicaid scares some people away from applying for benefits in the first place.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
It’s someone who kind of scares you and kind of raises your game and demands, you know, a kind of a better tennis game, although I’ve never played tennis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
“Poltergeist” was, notably, a summertime Amblin release that similarly riffed on classic creature scares — updating dusty, old ghost tropes with new ideas — much like Mitchell does with his dino-time-travel extravaganza.
From Salon ● Aug. 20, 2026
I feel sorry for him, but he scares me.
From "I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter" by Erika L. Sánchez
Fifth place went to Sony Pictures' "Insidious: Out of the Further," which scared up $6.5 million in the third week of viewing for this sixth installment in the horror franchise.
From Barron's ● Sep. 6, 2026
“He’s not scared to get ... too hyped,” Golden Bears linebacker AJ Tuitele said of Lupoi.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
“When people talk about raising the FRA, people are often scared by that, because they think, ‘I have to work until that age,’” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
"Chelsea wasn't scared, she wouldn't have known this was going to happen and she held on long enough to get baby Tommy here," she added.
From BBC ● Aug. 31, 2026
“All of this. Remember when I said I wanted to get rid of you because I was scared? That was true… but it wasn’t the full truth.”
From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman
The air carrier said higher fares aren’t scaring away customers, who are prioritizing travel spend.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
A series of military exercises taking place in empty buildings across the Southland are scaring residents and rattling neighbors as the sound of gunfire rings out in the dark and troops descend from helicopters.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 6, 2026
“Higher mortgage rates are scaring off some buyers, but that’s opening the door for others,” Chen Zhao, Redfin’s head of economics research, said in a statement.
From Barron's ● May 26, 2026
Resident Faye Sturgess said: "Being a farming community, we're used to hearing bangs from scaring the rabbits in the fields, but this was like nothing I've ever heard."
From BBC ● May 10, 2026
“I told you there was no reason to go hunting him down and probably scaring the life out of him.”
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
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.
