stare
Americanverb (used without object)
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stares,
present (3rd person singular)
-
stared,
past participle, past
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staring
present participle
-
to gaze fixedly and intently, especially with the eyes wide open.
-
to be boldly or obtrusively conspicuous.
The bright modern painting stares out at you in the otherwise conservative gallery.
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to be patently or compellingly obvious.
The stark, staring fact is, you can't do something with nothing.
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(of hair, feathers, etc.) to stick out or stand on end; bristle.
Both male and female pheasants are rough-footed and have staring feathers around the head and neck.
verb (used with object)
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stares,
present (3rd person singular)
-
stared,
past participle, past
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staring
present participle
-
to stare at.
to stare a person up and down.
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to effect or have a certain effect on by staring.
They all laughed at me and stared me into silence.
noun
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stares
plural
verb phrase
idioms
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stare (something) in the face, to confront or be confronted by (something unpleasant).
The company is staring bankruptcy in the face.
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stare one in the face,
-
(especially of something undesirable) to be patently or compellingly obvious.
Sounds like a far-fetched theory, but when the evidence is staring you in the face, you have to take notice.
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to be urgent or impending; be about to happen.
The income tax deadline is staring us in the face.
-
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staring down the barrel of,
-
having (a firearm) aimed at one, especially at close range.
He turned his head and found himself staring down the barrel of a rifle.
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facing (a threat, challenging situation, or imminent disaster).
Motorists are staring down the barrel of a major hike in the price of fuel.
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verb
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to look or gaze fixedly, often with hostility or rudeness
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(intr) (of an animal's fur, bird's feathers, etc) to stand on end because of fear, ill health, etc
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(intr) to stand out as obvious; glare
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to be glaringly obvious or imminent
noun
noun
Synonym Usage
See gaze.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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staresimple
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staressimple
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have staredperfect
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has staredperfect
-
am staringprogressive
-
are staringprogressive
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is staringprogressive
-
have been staringperfect progressive
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has been staringperfect progressive
Past
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staredsimple
-
had staredperfect
-
was staringprogressive
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were staringprogressive
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had been staringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stare
First recorded before 900; Middle English staren, Old English starian; cognate with Dutch staren, German starren, Old Norse stara; akin to stark, starve
Explanation
To stare is to fix your eyes on a subject. As hard as it might be to resist looking at them for long periods of time, it's not polite to stare at celebrities. The noun stare is a certain kind of gaze — a long, intense one. The verb to stare is the act of staring, of locking one's eyes somewhere. When one stares at something, one looks at it for a long period of time, often with great intensity and without blinking. That's why one loses a staring contest when one blinks. Try not to stare at people when they're eating. It's rude! A stare is usually more intense and creepier than a gaze.
Vocabulary lists containing stare
Beowulf vocabulary
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Now See Here: Words For Looking
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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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:
A partial eclipse like the one the UK experienced on Wednesday meant the sun was still pretty bright, so far fewer people may have tried to stare at it directly.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
If they stare at me blankly, I’m out.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
Their snobbery is juxtaposed with Carney’s friend and colleague Pepper’s unsettling bluntness and eyeball to eyeball stare.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 20, 2026
In Los Palos Grandes, one of Caracas's most expensive middle-class neighborhoods and one of the hardest hit, three residents stare with dismay at the red sign placed on their building.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
“They chased the whale when my mother died. Now they want to bring people to stare at us and bother the animals—and Jack hates them. You can’t bring them here!”
From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr
One man stares silently at the floor, weakened by advanced liver disease and in urgent need of treatment.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
“Sometimes he just sits and stares into space,” she said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
Elsewhere in Washington, the now-defunct US Institute of Peace was renamed after Trump, and his face stares down from huge banners outside the Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
“He stares into the abyss,” his daughter Rebecca Shouhed said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026
Mom stares at it, and I tense up, ready for her to tell me to cross it out and write “Frankie” instead.
From "The Wrong Way Home" by Kate O’Shaughnessy
Elsewhere in Washington, the now-defunct US Institute of Peace was also renamed after Trump, and his face has stared down from huge banners hung outside the Justice and Agriculture Departments.
From Barron's ● Aug. 13, 2026
As he stared at the black stone that AlphaGo dropped on the board, Sedol saw a move that no professional Go player would have made.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 8, 2026
“All I want is to bury my son beside his brothers,” Al-Zaharnah said, his voice quiet as he stared at the excavator.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
Later that year, he twice froze during press conferences, stared into space, and had to be assisted.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2026
Barred windows stared from tall buildings on three sides of the courtyard, along the fourth was a high wall and against this stood a row of small huts.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
"I opened the package, and there was a giant, 200-year-old eyeball sitting on dry ice just staring back at me," the 28-year-old says with a laugh.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 23, 2026
She is frequently by Trump’s side, often smiling and staring fixedly at him, and once reportedly rode in an SUV trunk to accompany him to a court date because there wasn’t a seat for her.
From Slate ● Aug. 21, 2026
The danger comes because staring at an eclipse without protection can damage the retina, which sits at the back of the eye, and particularly those cells responsible for sharp central vision.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
I was staring at my 61-year-old reflection as I repeated these mantras suggested by my new therapist SuzAnn, embarrassed at the idiocy although I lived alone in a small West L.A. guesthouse.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
I emptied it into my hand and the next moment was staring in disbelief at my Alpina watch.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
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.
