scare

scare1 [ sker ] verb *

transitive to make someone feel frightened or worried:

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you.

scare the life/daylights out of someone (=scare someone very much): What are you doing in there? You scared the life out of me.

scare someone to death (=scare someone very much): The way he drives scares me to death.

a. intransitive to become frightened or worried:

Cats scare very easily.

,scare a`way or ,scare `off phrasal verb transitive

1. ) to make someone feel so frightened or worried that they do not do something they had planned to do:

The city's high murder rate has scared away tourists.

2. ) to make someone so frightened that they run away:

The attacker was scared away when the woman started to scream.

`scare ,into phrasal verb transitive

scare someone into something to make someone feel so worried or frightened that they do something:

scare someone into doing something: Many people have been scared into buying organic food.

,scare `off phrasal verb transitive

same as SCARE AWAY

,scare `up phrasal verb transitive AMERICAN INFORMAL

to make something using the few things that are available:

Dad went into the kitchen to try to scare up a meal.

scare

scare 2 [ sker ] noun count

a situation that makes people suddenly feel worried or frightened about something:

health/food/AIDS/bomb etc. scare: A bomb scare forced the pilot to make an emergency landing.

a. a sudden feeling of fear or worry:

I had a little scare when I saw how much the bill was.

It gave me quite a scare when the cat jumped on me.