scare Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun sudden mass fear and anxiety over anticipated events
    panic.
    • panic in the stock market
    • a war scare
    • a bomb scare led them to evacuate the building
  2. noun a sudden attack of fear
    panic attack.
  3. verb cause fear in
    frighten; fright; affright.
    • The stranger who hangs around the building frightens me
    • Ghosts could never affright her
  4. verb cause to lose courage
    scare away; scare off; frighten off; dash; pall; daunt; frighten away.
    • dashed by the refusal

WordNet

Scare transitive verb
Etymology
OE. skerren, skeren, Icel. skirra to bar, prevent, skirrask to shun , shrink from; or fr. OE. skerre, adj., scared, Icel. skjarr; both perhaps akin to E. sheer to turn.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Scared ; present participle & verbal noun Scaring
Definitions
  1. To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm.
    The noise of thy crossbow Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost. Shak.
    Syn. -- To alarm; frighten; startle; affright; terrify.
Scare noun
Definitions
  1. Fright; esp., sudden fright produced by a trifling cause, or originating in mistake. Colloq.

Webster 1913