1 scare
Pronounced:
/ˈskeɚ/
Function:
verbInflected forms:
scares; scared; scar·ingMeaning:
1 [+ obj] : to cause (someone) to become afraid : frighten ▪ You scared me. I didn't see you there. ▪ Stop that, you're scaring the children. ▪ The loud noise scared them. = They were scared by the loud noise. ▪ You nearly scared me to death. [=you scared me very much]
2 [no obj] : to become afraid ▪ I don't scare easily.
2 [no obj] : to become afraid ▪ I don't scare easily.
scare away/off [phrasal verb]
scare (someone or something) away/off or scare away/off (someone or something) : to cause (someone or something) to go away and stay away because of fear or because of possible trouble, difficulty, etc. ▪ The dog scared the prowler away. ▪ The noise scared off the birds. ▪ Tourists have been scared off by the recent violence in the city. [=tourists have not visited the city because of the recent violence there] ▪ She finally found a man who's not scared away by the fact that she is a single mom raising two children.
scare into [phrasal verb]
scare (someone) into (something) : to cause (someone) to do (something) because of fear ▪ The police scared him into confessing his crime. ▪ They tried to scare us into buying more insurance.
scare up [phrasal verb]
scare (someone or something) up or scare up (someone or something) US informal : to find or get (someone or something) with some difficulty ▪ We managed to scare up [=scrape up] the money. ▪ Let's try to scare up some people to play football.