From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
scare
n 1: sudden mass fear and anxiety over anticipated events; "panic
in the stock market"; "a war scare"; "a bomb scare led
them to evacuate the building" [syn: panic]
2: a sudden attack of fear [syn: panic attack]
v 1: cause fear in; "The stranger who hangs around the building
frightens me" [syn: frighten, fright, affright]
2: cause to lose courage; "dashed by the refusal" [syn:
daunt, dash, scare off, pall, frighten off,
scare away, frighten away]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Scare \Scare\, n.
Fright; esp., sudden fright produced by a trifling cause, or
originating in mistake. [Colloq.]
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Scare \Scare\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Scared; p. pr. & vb. n.
Scaring.] [OE. skerren, skeren, Icel. skirra to bar,
prevent, skirrask to shun, shrink from; or fr. OE. skerre,
adj., scared, Icel. skjarr; both perhaps akin to E. sheer to
turn.]
To frighten; to strike with sudden fear; to alarm.
[1913 Webster]
The noise of thy crossbow
Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
To scare away, to drive away by frightening.
To scare up, to find by search, as if by beating for game.
[Slang]
[1913 Webster]
Syn: To alarm; frighten; startle; affright; terrify.
[1913 Webster]