Verb
You scared me. I didn't see you there.
Stop that, you're scaring the children. Noun
There have been scares about the water supply being contaminated.
fired over their heads in order to throw a scare into them
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Verb
Geopolitical scares that faded and allowed oil prices to recede.—Chris Isidore, CNN Money, 3 Mar. 2026 During an eclipse, people would bang drums, shoot arrows, or create loud noises to scare the dragon away, as a red moon was seen as a sign of impending misfortune or celestial imbalance.—Alan Bradley, Space.com, 2 Mar. 2026
Noun
The Heat has maintained a good relationship with Bosh but also had no information on the nature of his health scare.—Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 25 Feb. 2026 When Hollywood faced a similar scare in late 2025 from an AI video generator created by OpenAI, unions, studios, and talent agencies banded together to push for changes, including the signing of licensing deals.—The Week Us, TheWeek, 24 Feb. 2026 See All Example Sentences for scare
Word History
Etymology
Verb
Middle English skerren, from Old Norse skirra, from skjarr shy, timid