- 1[countable] (used especially in newspapers) a situation in which a lot of people are anxious or frightened about something a bomb/health scare recent scares about pesticides in food a scare story (= a news report that spreads more anxiety or fear about something than is necessary) to cause a major scare scare tactics (= ways of persuading people to do something by frightening them)
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- 2[singular] a sudden feeling of fear You gave me a scare! We've had quite a scare. see scary
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