stare

stare — verb

1. to fix your eyes steadily on a person or thing without moving them away, keeping

1.verbintransitiveA2
Definition

to fix your eyes steadily on a person or thing without moving them away, keeping your eyes wide open — often because you feel surprised, shocked, curious, or absorbed in thought

Example

Ingrid stared at the old photograph for several minutes, trying to recognise the faces.

stare + at + noun

The children stared in amazement as the magician pulled a white rabbit from his hat.

stare + in + emotion noun (amazement, shock, disbelief)

Common collocations
  • stare blankly
  • stare intently
  • stare hard
  • stare in disbelief
  • stare in shock
  • stare in amazement
  • stare at the wall
  • stare into the distance
  • stare out the window
Synonyms
  • gaze

    similar duration but softer tone — often suggests admiration or wonder, while stare is more intense or blank

  • gape

    implies an open mouth and stronger shock or stupidity

  • glare

    a stare with anger or hostility

  • peer

    to look closely and with effort, as if trying to see something unclear

Grammar Patterns

stare + at + noun/pronoun

stare + into + noun

stare + adverb (blankly, intently)

Usage Note

Patient is introduced by at or, for abstract directions, into (stare into the distance, stare into space). This sense is rarely used transitively except in fixed expressions like stare someone down.

Common Mistakes

He stared me for a long time.
He stared at me for a long time.
stare is intransitive and needs the preposition at before the object.
I stared the beautiful sunset.
I stared at the beautiful sunset.
even for things, stare requires at.
Phrasal verbs

stare someone down

phrasal verb

to look at someone so steadily and intensely that they become uncomfortable and look away first

Eleni stared her opponent down across the chess table before making the first move.

The two dogs stood facing each other, each trying to stare the other down.

stare out

phrasal verb

To look at someone or something for a long time without looking away, often to show power or to make them feel uncomfortable.

The cat stared out the window at the birds for hours.

Why did you stare out the stranger on the bus?

Idioms

be staring somebody in the face

idiom

to be very obvious and easy to notice, especially after being missed for some time

The answer to the puzzle had been staring Hoa in the face all along, but she kept looking in the wrong place.

Sayaka could not believe she had missed such a simple mistake — it was staring her right in the face.

be staring something in the face

idiom

to be unable to avoid something unpleasant or dangerous that is about to happen

After the company lost its biggest client, the manager knew they were staring bankruptcy in the face.

Sofia realised she was staring a long prison sentence in the face if the case went to trial.

stare — noun

Word family

  • staring
    adjectiveB2
  • starer
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/1

All five verbs describe looking, but they differ in duration, emotion, and purpose. Stare (the most neutral of the five) describes a long, fixed look with wide eyes, often driven by surprise, curiosity, or thought — and it can be blank or intense. Gaze implies a warmer, softer look of admiration or deep thought (he gazed at the stars). Gape adds a physical detail: the mouth hangs open, usually from shock or stupidity (tourists gaped at the tall building). Glare is a stare full of anger or resentment (she glared at the noisy students). Peer suggests straining to see something unclear or hard to make out (he peered through the fog). Use stare for a strong, steady look that holds its target; choose one of the others when the specific emotion or physical detail matters more.

stare ↗gaze ↗gapeglarepeer ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Adverbs

Phrases

  • stare in disbelief
  • stare in amazement
  • stare in shock
  • stare in horror
  • stare in wonder

Prepositions

Etymology

Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-GermanicOld EnglishEnglish

Stare comes from the Old English word starian, meaning 'to gaze steadily.' It belongs to a family of Germanic words that all carry the sense of something stiff or fixed — related to Old Norse stara and German starren (to stare). The deeper root, from Proto-Indo-European *ster-, means 'stiff' or 'rigid,' which fits the way your eyes become still and unblinking when you stare at something.