scare.
A minor fright.
Meaning & usage
A minor fright.
Johnny had a bad scare last night.
A cause of terror or alarm; a panic; something that inspires fear or dread.
a food-poisoning scare
A device or object used to frighten.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English sker, skere (“terror, fright”), from the verb Middle English skerren (“to frighten”) (see below).
To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
Did it scare you when I said "Boo!"?
(To be able) to be scared.
I don't scare easily.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English scaren, skaren, scarren, skeren, skerren, from Old Norse skirra (“to frighten; to shrink away from, shun; to prevent, avert”), from Proto-Germanic *skirzijaną (“to shoo, scare off”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to swing, jump, move”). Related to Old Norse skjarr (“timid, shy, afraid of”). Cognate with Scots skar (“wild, timid, shy”), dialectal Norwegian Nynorsk skjerra, dialectal Swedish skjarra and possibly Old Armenian ցիռ (cʻiṙ, “wild ass”).
lean; scanty
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.