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:
The Sun leads with "scare in Ukraine" after reports emerged that the train line used by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been "blitzed by a Russian drone".
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
There was a brief injury scare to quarterback Nico Iamaleava, but by then, the Bruins had effectively won the game with two things they did poorly a season ago: rushing and defense.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 6, 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
Chapman, 33 years old, said he is a big believer in Musk, though he believes rocket launches may scare off the ducks he avidly hunts, at least temporarily.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026
The only way they could move forward was to scare it off the road or step over it.
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
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
“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
To be clear, that example about ambulances scares me, too.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026
“The scares are not good for everybody else, but sometimes they can really drive business for us,” Cook said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
Everything that scares you kind of mushes together to become this big, terrifying feeling.
From "Auggie & Me" by R. J. Palacio
"The people who work at these companies are completely serious when they ask for regulation because they find themselves trapped in a race. And they're scared of the outcomes of that race."
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
“Am I scared? Of course I am; I’ve never done this,” she recently told The Times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
New Yorkers famously went out to the bars that very night, refusing to sit scared in our apartments.
From Slate ● Sep. 11, 2026
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
She looked scared as she approached the water.
From "Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver
“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
Resisting AI innovation is as wrongheaded as overselling its immediate impact and needlessly scaring American workers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 21, 2026
In horror, more is more — more gore, more jump scares, more shadowed silhouettes; all in service of scaring the viewer.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2026
“Why are you scaring these boys?” she demanded, inserting herself between me and the trooper holding the handcuffs.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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.
