- 1[transitive] to frighten someone scare somebody You scared me. it scares somebody to do something It scared me to think I was alone in the building.
- 2[intransitive] to become frightened He doesn't scare easily. see scary Thesaurusscare
- frighten
- alarm
- terrify
- scare to make someone feel afraid:They managed to scare away the bears.
- frighten to make someone feel afraid, often suddenly:She brought out a gun and frightened them off.
- Frighten is slightly more formal than scare.
- alarm to make someone anxious or afraid:I am alarmed at how quickly this decision was made. Alarm is used when someone has a feeling that something unpleasant or dangerous might happen in the future; the feeling is often more one of worry than actual fear.
- terrify to make someone feel extremely afraid:Flying terrified her.
- to scare/frighten somebody/something away/off
- to scare/frighten/terrify somebody into doing something
- It scares/frightens/alarms/terrifies me >that…>
- It scares/frightens/alarms/terrifies me >to>think, see, etc.
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NAmE//skɛr//
Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they scare he / she / it scares
past simple scared
-ing form scaring
to scare someone very much
to frighten someone very much You scared the life out of me coming in so suddenly like that.
to frighten someone very much Spiders scare him to death. Phrasal Verbsscare awayscare into doingscare offscare up
Check pronunciation: scare