as in frightens
to strike with fear
thunderstorms have always scared her
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Recent Examples of scares
Is there somewhere that scares you?
—
Literary Hub, 20 Jan. 2026
The burgeoning star forward was battered and bruised throughout the night, playing through brief injury scares to a knee and an elbow.
—Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 19 Jan. 2026
Bobbi Salvör Menuez plays the ferret-owning non-binary character who doesn’t like music or air fresheners and scares off Michelle Randolph’s Ainsley after briefly being forced to share a dorm room at cheer camp.
—Peter White, Deadline, 18 Jan. 2026
Ho-jin has trouble understanding Mu-hee, which scares him.
—Kayti Burt, Time, 16 Jan. 2026
What scares those in the world of pediatrics, though, is imagining how the new schedule could play out over time.
—Isabella Cueto, STAT, 6 Jan. 2026
What's the thing that scares me the most?
—NBC news, 28 Dec. 2025
And if the role scares you a little and excites you a lot?
—Johnny C. Taylor Jr, USA Today, 16 Dec. 2025
The incident comes amid a turbulent year for air travel, marked by high-profile safety scares including runway incursions, severe turbulence injuries, and the government shutdown worsening mounting strain on aviation systems during peak travel periods.
—Alaa Elassar, CNN Money, 13 Dec. 2025
Literary Hub, 20 Jan. 2026
The burgeoning star forward was battered and bruised throughout the night, playing through brief injury scares to a knee and an elbow.
—Bennett Durando, Denver Post, 19 Jan. 2026
Bobbi Salvör Menuez plays the ferret-owning non-binary character who doesn’t like music or air fresheners and scares off Michelle Randolph’s Ainsley after briefly being forced to share a dorm room at cheer camp.
—Peter White, Deadline, 18 Jan. 2026
Ho-jin has trouble understanding Mu-hee, which scares him.
—Kayti Burt, Time, 16 Jan. 2026
What scares those in the world of pediatrics, though, is imagining how the new schedule could play out over time.
—Isabella Cueto, STAT, 6 Jan. 2026
What's the thing that scares me the most?
—NBC news, 28 Dec. 2025
And if the role scares you a little and excites you a lot?
—Johnny C. Taylor Jr, USA Today, 16 Dec. 2025
The incident comes amid a turbulent year for air travel, marked by high-profile safety scares including runway incursions, severe turbulence injuries, and the government shutdown worsening mounting strain on aviation systems during peak travel periods.
—Alaa Elassar, CNN Money, 13 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for scares
Verb
-
Baker says what frightens her most is whether younger generations will ever be able to step off that wheel — to build generational wealth through homeownership.—
Elizabeth Prann,
The Hill,
10 Nov. 2025
-
Within my book, one of the things that frightens me most is the fact that with censorship, there’s often not a clear red line, right?—
Fiction Non Fiction
October 2,
Literary Hub,
2 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Rows sit silent at Karmel Mall as the immigration crackdown terrifies customers and workers, paralyzing the economic hub for Minneapolis’s largest Somali population.—
Sarah Raza,
Los Angeles Times,
18 Jan. 2026
-
That terrifies me to try to adapt something.—
Mike Fleming Jr,
Deadline,
17 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
As the dolphin gets closer to the glass, the Chihuahua lets out a bark that startles the dolphin, who then starts mimicking the dog's mouth movements in a sort of chasing game across species.—
Maria Azzurra Volpe,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Scares.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/scares. Accessed 26 Jan. 2026.
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