scare

scare — verb

1. to cause someone or an animal to experience sudden fear, making them feel alarme

1.verbtransitive / intransitiveA2
Definition

to cause someone or an animal to experience sudden fear, making them feel alarmed or worried

Example

A loud thunderclap scared Léa's dog so badly that it hid under the sofa.

transitive: scare + object

Adaeze was scared by the shadows moving outside her bedroom window late at night.

passive: be scared by

Common collocations
  • scare someone into doing something
  • scare someone away
  • scare someone off
  • scare easily
  • scare the life out of someone
Synonyms
  • frighten

    very similar in meaning; 'frighten' may sound slightly more formal

  • alarm

    suggests a sudden sense of danger or threat; stronger than 'scare'

  • startle

    implies a brief moment of surprise rather than lasting fear

Antonyms
  • calm

    opposite in effect — to make someone relaxed instead of afraid

  • reassure

    to remove someone's fears rather than create them

Grammar Patterns

scare + object

scare + object + into + doing something

not scare easily

be scared by/of

Usage Note

Frequently used in the passive (be scared by/of something). The intransitive pattern 'not scare easily' describes a person's general character rather than a single event.

Common Mistakes

I am scare of spiders.
I am scared of spiders.
'scare' is a verb; the adjective form is 'scared'.
The noise scared to me.
The noise scared me.
'scare' is transitive and takes a direct object without a preposition.
Phrasal verbs

scare away

phrasal verb

to make a person, animal, or group leave a place by frightening them

The farmer put a large fake owl in the field to scare away the birds.

High prices have scared away many young families from buying homes in the city centre.

scare off

phrasal verb

to cause someone or something to go away by frightening them; also used figuratively to mean discouraging someone

The security guard shouted to scare off the teenagers who were climbing the fence.

Liam did not want to appear too eager on the first date, afraid he might scare her off.

scare up

phrasal verb

to find, gather, or produce something with effort, especially food or information (American English, informal)

Léa managed to scare up enough chairs for the twenty guests who arrived unexpectedly.

Can you scare up some old photos of the neighbourhood from before the new buildings went up?

scare into doing

phrasal verb

To force someone to do something by frightening them.

The bully scared the boy into giving him his lunch money.

Did they scare you into signing the contract?

Idioms

scare the life out of someone

idiom

to frighten someone extremely, causing a very strong emotional reaction

The way that car suddenly appeared from nowhere scared the life out of Gita.

A spider crawling across Matthew's pillow scared the life out of him.

scare someone to death

idiom

to frighten someone so much that they feel an extreme, overwhelming shock

Rin's little brother jumped out from behind the curtain and scared her to death.

That noise in the garage scared me to death — I thought someone had broken in.

scare someone stiff

idiom

to make someone so frightened that they become unable to move or react

The hikers were scared stiff when they heard a bear moving through the bushes nearby.

Tara was scared stiff before her big presentation, but she managed to finish it.

scare the daylights out of someone

idiom

to frighten someone very suddenly and intensely

The cat jumped off the shelf in the dark kitchen and scared the daylights out of Hamza.

A loud knock on the door at midnight scared the daylights out of the whole family.

frighten/scare the life out of somebody

idiom

To frighten someone very severely.

The car almost hit him and scared the life out of Tom.

That sudden scream frightened the life out of everyone in the room.

frighten/scare somebody to death

idiom

To make someone extremely frightened.

The spider on her pillow scared Sara to death.

Did the roller coaster ride frighten you to death?

scare — noun

Word family

  • scared
    adjectiveA2
  • scary
    adjectiveA2
  • scarer
    nounC1
  • scaremonger
    nounC1
  • scaremongering
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All four words describe causing fear, but they differ in intensity and duration. 'Scare' and 'frighten' are the most common and interchangeable, though 'frighten' can feel slightly more formal or literary. 'Alarm' suggests a sharper sense of danger that prepares someone to act — you are alarmed by a fire alarm, not merely scared by it. 'Startle' is the briefest: a sudden noise startles you, but the feeling passes in a second. For everyday use: 'The dog scared the cat' sounds natural; 'The dog alarmed the cat' sounds too strong; 'The dog startled the cat' implies only a quick reaction, not lasting fear.

scare ↗frighten ↗alarm ↗startle ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • scare the life out of
  • scare the daylights out of
  • scare to death

Prepositions

Etymology

Old NorseMiddle EnglishEnglish

The word 'scare' comes from the Old Norse word 'skirra', meaning to shrink from or to frighten. It entered Middle English as 'skerren' or 'scerren' and gradually took its modern form. The noun sense of 'a sudden fright' developed later, in the 1700s, while the public-panic meaning (as in 'bomb scare') emerged in the 1900s.