Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Scared |
ScaredAdjective1. Made afraid; "the frightened child cowered in the corner"; "too shocked and scared to move". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "scared" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1120. (references) |
Synonym: ScaredSynonym: frightened (adj). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Scared |
| English words defined with "scared": dread ♦ fear, frightened. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "scared": Brocklehurst ♦ INAUSPICIOUSLY ♦ JONES ♦ Manslaughter, Mohocks ♦ Owl in an Ivy Bush ♦ Seven Senses. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "scared": Scare. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I don't blame you for being scared - not one bit. Nobody with good sense ain't scared of white water (The African Queen; writing credit: C.S. Forester; James Agee) I'm scared to close my eyes (The Blair Witch Project; writing credit: Daniel Myrick; Eduardo Sánchez) Me? I'm scared of everything (Dirty Dancing; writing credit: Eleanor Bergstein) Were you scared in Vietnam (Forrest Gump; writing credit: Eric Roth) Hot in here, or am I just scared to death (Die Hard: With a Vengeance; writing credit: Jonathan Hensleigh) | |
Lyrics | Just runnin’ scared each place we go (Running Scared; performing artist: Roy Orbison; writing credit: Roy Orbison and Joe Melson) Suspended from school, scared ta go home (Dear Mama; performing artist: 2Pac) Hold me when I'm scared (When I'm Gone; performing artist: 3 DOORS DOWN) 'Cuz you weren't there when I was scared (Losing Grip; performing artist: AVRIL LAVIGNE) I know you ain't scared to go have some fun (Uh Huh; performing artist: B2K) | |
Clever | Wyoming: Where Men Are Men ... and the sheep are scared! (references; author: unknown) If you are never scared, embarrassed, or hurt, it means you never take chances. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Scared (2001) Running Scared (1972) Scared Stiff (1953) The Scared Crows (1939) Scared Stiff (1935) | |
Song Titles | Running Scared (performing artist: Roy Orbison) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Theater & Movies | |
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | A Great Black Backed Gull on a piling. Obviously not scared of the owl. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Feeling Scared" by T. Al Nakib Commentary: "A little bit of photography at night." | "Expression 1" by Wagner Soares Commentary: "My cat Amélie on a fur carpet: her way of looking at me got me scared... ." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | Scared chimpanzee screaming and whimpering. | | Scared scream. |
| Scared donkey cry. | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Earl Wilson | Courage is the art of being the only one who knows you're scared to death. |
John Stuart Mill | Don't be scared to fight for your rights. George Washington wasn't and even the British like him now. |
Sam Snead | Of the mental hazards, being scared is the worst. When you get scared, you get tense. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | But folks are kind of scared to stop at night |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Becomes scared by a loud voice. (references) | |
I never used to be like this, but it's hard not to be scared by changes that might mean problems. (references) | ||
Human Rights | Peru | According to Amnesty International, several victims have been too scared to follow through with judicial proceedings against their abusers, who subsequently were released without being charged. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | INAUSPICIOUSLY, adv. In an unpromising manner, the auspices being unfavorable. Among the Romans it was customary before undertaking any important action or enterprise to obtain from the augurs, or state prophets, some hint of its probable outcome; and one of their favorite and most trustworthy modes of divination consisted in observing the flight of birds -- the omens thence derived being called auspices. Newspaper reporters and certain miscreant lexicographers have decided that the word -- always in the plural -- shall mean "patronage" or "management"; as, "The festivities were under the auspices of the Ancient and Honorable Order of Body-Snatchers"; or, "The hilarities were auspicated by the Knights of Hunger." A Roman slave appeared one day Before the Augur. "Tell me, pray, If --" here the Augur, smiling, made A checking gesture and displayed His open palm, which plainly itched, For visibly its surface twitched. A denarius (the Latin nickel) Successfully allayed the tickle, And then the slave proceeded: "Please Inform me whether Fate decrees Success or failure in what I To-night (if it be dark) shall try. Its nature? Never mind -- I think 'Tis writ on this" -- and with a wink Which darkened half the earth, he drew Another denarius to view, Its shining face attentive scanned, Then slipped it into the good man's hand, Who with great gravity said: "Wait While I retire to question Fate." That holy person then withdrew His scared clay and, passing through The temple's rearward gate, cried "Shoo!" Waving his robe of office. Straight Each sacred peacock and its mate (Maintained for Juno's favor) fled With clamor from the trees o'erhead, Where they were perching for the night. The temple's roof received their flight, For thither they would always go, When danger threatened them below. Back to the slave the Augur went: "My son, forecasting the event By flight of birds, I must confess The auspices deny success." That slave retired, a sadder man, Abandoning his secret plan -- Which was (as well the craft seer Had from the first divined) to clear The wall and fraudulently seize On Juno's poultry in the trees. G.J. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Phrase(s) |
Ann Richards | So my own party, they don't take after this guy. And I think the sensitivity is that they're scared to death that they'll appear unpatriotic in a very sensitive war time. And that's the White House still keeps talking war. |
Matthew Perry | I do, but I think in the last maybe six or seven months of my life, I've become a person that deserves somebody wonderful and isn't scared of that any more. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Scared" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 76.68% of the time. "Scared" is used about 1,041 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 76.68% | 798 | 8,706 |
| Lexical Verb (past participle) | 13.92% | 145 | 26,217 |
| Lexical Verb (past tense) | 9.4% | 98 | 33,072 |
| Total | 100.00% | 1,041 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "scared": be dead scared ♦ be scared ♦ be scared of ♦ be scared out of one's wits ♦ be scared stiff ♦ get scared. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "scared": scared-faced, scared-he. | |
Ending with "scared": poo-scared. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "scared"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | i trembur (frightened, shy, windy), i frikësuar (afraid, frightened). (various references) | |
Arabic | مزعور, مروع (alarmed, appalling, awful, dreadful, frightened, frightening, frightful, ghastly, grisly, gruesome, horrible, horrific, horrified, horrifying, macabre, panic stricken, shocked, shocking, startled, startling, terrified, terrifying, terror stricken, terrorized), خواف (fearful, scary, shrinking), جبان (apprehensive, chicken, chicken heart, chicken hearted, coward, cowardly, cur, faint, fearful, fearsome, funk, funky, heartless, lily livered, pigeon-hearted, poor spirited, pusillanimous, sheepish, shy, sissified, sissy, spiritless, timid, timorous, tremulous, unmanly, weak-kneed), أصيب بهلع. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | уплашен (afraid, scare, scary), паникьосан (jittery, panic stricken, panicky). (various references) | |
Chinese | 惊吓 (Affrighted, Affrighting, Scaring). (various references) | |
Czech | ustrašený (browbeaten, frightened, milk-livered, timorous). (various references) | |
Finnish | pelästynyt (frightened, startled). (various references) | |
French | peureux (scary), effrayé, craintif, affolé (scampish). (various references) | |
German | verscheuchte (scared away), erschrocken (frightened, startled, terrified), bange (afraid, anxiety, anxious, apprehension, frightened, funky, nervousness, tremble, uneasy, worried), aufgeschreckt (alarmed, startled), ängstlich (afraid, anxious, anxiously, apprehensive, apprehensively, cringing, fearful, fearfully, funky, scary, scrupulous, scrupulously, terrified, timid, timorous, uneasy). (various references) | |
Greek | τρομαγμένος (frightened). (various references) | |
Hebrew | לפחד (apprehend, be afraid, be scared, fear, frighten), להבהל (be alarmed, be disturbed, be scared, be terrified, hasten). (various references) | |
Hungarian | rémült (be horrified, daunted, frightened, panicky), ijedt (be scared, frightened, scary, startled). (various references) | |
Indonesian | kejut (frightened, startled). (various references) | |
Italian | impaurito (afraid, funky). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 怖じる (to be scared), ひ弱い (be afraid of, be fearful, be nervous, be timid, relentlessly, retaining composure, saturated, sickly, stickily, to be scared, undaunted, unperturbed, weak, wet through), かさかさ鳴る (burning hotly, clattering, clink, cucumber, exactly, flare up, flying into a rage, frozen solid, I wonder, knocking, obstinate, scared stiff, set rock hard, tick-tock, tightly, to crinkle, to grow numb with cold, to make a rustling sound, to rustle, with a click). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | おじる (to be scared), びくつく (to be scared), かちかち (frozen solid, knocking, obstinate, scared stiff, set rock hard, tick-tock). (various references) | |
Korean | 위협하는 (threatened). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | aredscay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | um rosto apavorado, assustado (afraid, frightened, jumpy, scary, shy, startled), apavorado (panicky). (various references) | |
Romanian | înspãimântat (afeard, aghast, frightened, terrified). (various references) | |
Russian | пугать испуганный, испуганный (afraid, chicken livered, frightened). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | prestrašen (apprehensive). (various references) | |
Spanish | espantado (aghast, frightened, startled), asustado (afraid, frightened, startled). (various references) | |
Swedish | rädd (afraid, chary, eery, fearful, frightened, jealous, timid, timorous), förskrämd (frightened, shy). (various references) | |
Turkish | korkmuş (afraid, awestruck, frightened, ill with fear, terrified, windy), ürkmüş (frightened), ödü kopmuş. (various references) | |
Turkmen | ьrkmek (be frightened, be scared of). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | переляканий (horrent). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Scared" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ascarid, sabred, sacard, sacerd, sacerdos, Sacree, sacreed, sacrer, sacret, sarde, sared, sarod, scaped, scarde, scardy, scarea, scareb, scaredy, scarem, scarep, scarett, scarted, scarved, scaved, schred, sciret, sclaret, scrad, scrade, scrare, scrared, scryed, scured, sicario, skurred, sucare. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "scared" (pronounced ske"rd) |
| 4 | -k e" r d | cared. |
| 3 | -e" r d | aired, bared, blared, chaired, compared, dared, declared, despaired, laird, ensnared, erred, fared, flared, glared, haired, impaired, paired, pared, prepared, repaired, shared, snared, spared, squared, stared, undeclared, unimpaired, unprepared. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: cadres, cedars, sacred. | |
| Words within the letters "a-c-d-e-r-s" | |
-1 letter: acred, acres, arced, cades, cadre, cards, cared, cares, carse, cased, cedar, daces, dares, dears, escar, raced, races, rased, reads, scare, serac. | |
-2 letters: aced, aces, acre, arcs, ares, arse, cade, cads, card, care, cars, case, dace, dare, dear, ears, eras, race, rads, rase, read, recs, reds, sade, sard, scad, scar, sear, sera. | |
-3 letters: ace. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-c-d-e-r-s" | |
+1 letter: arcades, cadgers, carders, cradles, crashed, creased, crusade, dackers, dancers, decares, echards, radices, redacts, redcaps, scarfed, scarped, scarred, scarted, scraped, sidecar. | |
+2 letters: acceders, accursed, acridest, adducers, ascender, ascribed, brocades, cadaster, cadastre, cadavers, calderas, candlers, carbides, cardcase, caressed, caroused, charades, cheddars, chresard, comrades, cordages, corrades, cradlers, crusaded, crusader, crusades, cudbears, decayers, deciares, declares, decrease, decrials, defacers, detracts, disgrace, durances, endosarc, escarped, hardcase, idocrase, keycards, peracids, rachides, radicels, radicles, reascend, redcoats, rescaled, respaced, sacredly, scarphed, scorepad, scragged, scrammed, scrapped, scrawled, screaked, screamed, searched, sidecars, starched, surfaced, traduces. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Sounds 10. Quotations: Familiar 11. Quotations: Fiction 12. Quotations: Non-fiction | 13. Quotations: Spoken 14. Usage Frequency 15. Expressions 16. Expressions: Internet | 17. Translations: Modern 18. Derivations 19. Rhymes 20. Anagrams | 21. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
