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
That scream likely scared off the man who showed no signs of backing off.—Jermont Terry, CBS News, 10 Feb. 2026 What scares me most with the world, not just the US, is that the idea of truth is kind of over.—Rebecca Ford, Vanity Fair, 10 Feb. 2026
Noun
But the backlash was strongest when audiences expected personal effort – a boss expressing sympathy after a tragedy, or a note sent to all staff members celebrating a colleague’s recovery from a health scare.—Julian Givi, Washington Post, 9 Feb. 2026 The Warriors struggled with their long range shooting for much of the game before finally finding some touch early in the fourth quarter to put a scare in the home team before the Lakers pulled away for good.—Benjamin Royer, Oc Register, 8 Feb. 2026 See All Example Sentences for scare
Word History
Etymology
Verb
Middle English skerren, from Old Norse skirra, from skjarr shy, timid