scared

American

[skaird] / skɛərd /

adjective

filled with fear, terror, or dread, often suddenly; frightened; alarmed.

The doctor provided not only physical treatment but also moral guidance for scared patients with terminal diagnoses.
I came into college as a scared freshman and left as a confident, competent adult.

verb

the simple past tense and past participle of scare.

Other Word Forms

unscared adjective

Etymology

Origin of scared

scare ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

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.

"I think they may be scared... I am scared too," the 40-year-old said, adding she was only making a fraction of her usual earnings.

From Barron's

"I was really scared but I knew I had to do something," he said.

From BBC

“I was so scared,” Ashlee told the paper, describing her early days in Santa Maria.

From Los Angeles Times

With the braggadocio of youth, I was probably too dumb to be scared.

From Los Angeles Times

“These weren’t criminals. They worked, they were the breadwinners of their house and their families were scared without them.”

From Los Angeles Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023