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fear

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

See also: Fear, féar, and fear-

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English feer, fere, fer, from Old English fǣr, ġefǣr (“calamity, sudden danger, peril, sudden attack, terrible sight”), from Proto-Germanic *fērō, *fērą (“danger”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to attempt, try, research, risk”). Cognate with Dutch gevaar (“danger, risk, peril”), German Gefahr (“danger, risk, hazard”), Swedish fara (“danger, risk, peril”), Latin perīculum (“danger, risk, trial”), Albanian frikë (“fear, danger”), Romanian frică. Doublet of peril.

The verb is from Middle English feren, from Old English fǣran (“to frighten, raven”), from the noun. Cognate with the archaic Dutch verb varen (“to fear; to cause fear”).

Noun

fear (countable and uncountable, plural fears)

  2. (uncountable) A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
    He was struck by fear on seeing the snake.
    • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
      I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.
    • 1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider […]”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A[ndrew] Munsey Company, […], published 1915, →OCLC, chapter III (Accessory After the Fact), page 382, column 1:
      Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
      ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?’
  3. (countable) A phobia, a sense of fear induced by something or someone.
    Not everybody has the same fears. I have a fear of ants.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  4. (uncountable) Terrified veneration or reverence, particularly towards God, gods, or sovereigns.
  5. (UK, with definite article, "the fear") A feeling of dread and anxiety when waking after drinking a lot of alcohol, wondering what one did while drunk.
    Synonym: hangxiety
    • 2019, Ruth Kelly, The Little Vineyard in Provence:
      Her feeling of humiliation had intensified as the day had gone on and her hangover had worsened. She now also had 'the fear' to contend with, […]
    • 2020, Mark Ratcliffe, The Step Down: A Very Scottish Crime:
      He had the fear, that feeling of dread that you've done something really embarrassing. The fear was a hundred times worse than the hangover. No, a thousand times worse.
Synonyms
  • (an emotion caused by actual or perceived danger; a sense of fear induced by something or someone): See Thesaurus:fear
  • (terrified veneration): dread
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb

fear (third-person singular simple present fears, present participle fearing, simple past and past participle feared)

  2. (transitive) To be afraid of (something or someone); to consider or expect (something or someone) with alarm.
    I fear the worst will happen.
    • c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
      I greatly fear my money is not safe.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 10:28:
      And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
      At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
    • 2013 July 19, Mark Tran, “Denied an education by war”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 1:
      One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools […] as children, teachers or school buildings become the targets of attacks. Parents fear sending their children to school. Girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.
  3. (intransitive) To feel fear.
    Never fear; help is always near.
  5. (intransitive) To worry about, to feel concern for, to be afraid for [with for].
    She fears for her son’s safety.
  6. (transitive) To venerate; to feel awe towards.
    People who fear God can be found in Christian churches.
  7. (transitive) To regret.
    I fear I have bad news for you: your husband has died.
  8. (obsolete, transitive) To cause fear to; to frighten.
  9. (obsolete, transitive) To be anxious or solicitous for.
  10. (obsolete, transitive) To suspect; to doubt.
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English fere, feore, from Old English fēre (“able to go, fit for service”), from Proto-Germanic *fōriz (“passable”), from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to put across, ferry”). Cognate with Scots fere, feir (“well, active, sound”), Middle High German gevüere (“able, capable, fit, serviceable”), Swedish för (“capable, able, stout”), Icelandic færr (“able”). Related to fare.

Adjective

fear (comparative more fear, superlative most fear)

  1. (dialectal) Able; capable; stout; strong; sound.
    hale and fear
Alternative forms

Anagrams

Irish

Scots

Scottish Gaelic

West Frisian

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