fear

Less common meanings

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To venerate; to regard with reverent awe.

   Devout believers fear the Lord above all else.

   A man who fears God, the old preacher said, need fear nothing else.

   Similarrevere, venerate, honor, worship, respect

   Oppositescorn, despise, disrespect

   Note

   The verb behind the reverent 'fear of God', and its object is typically God or gods: people who fear God. Learners can easily read it as the ordinary 'be afraid of', but someone who fears God is devout, not terrified. The awe in question sits closer to worship than to alarm.

7. 7
   be sorryverbtransitive

   To regret something; to be sorry to have to say it.

   I fear you may be disappointed by the final results.

   We fear there is nothing more to be done.

   UsageWorks like I'm afraid before bad news (I fear I have bad news), but sounds more formal and grave.

   Similarsuspect, regret

   Note

   This is the softening use, a courtesy placed before bad news: I fear I have bad news for you. The speaker is not frightened.

8. 8
   morning afternounUKcountable or uncountablewith the

   A feeling of dread and anxiety on waking after heavy drinking, when one cannot recall or worries about one's behavior while drunk.

   He woke at noon gripped by the fear, scrolling his phone for any clue to the night before.

   Nothing cures the fear quite like a fry-up and a quiet morning.

   Similarhorrors, dread, hangxiety

   Note

   A British name for the morning after, and it nearly always comes with its article: you have the fear, you contend with the fear. Mark Ratcliffe's The Step Down (2020) calls it a hundred times worse than the hangover, which marks the distinction: the headache is physical, while the fear is about what you said and did. Its blended synonym is hangxiety. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • Mark Ratcliffe wrote The Step Down. goodreads.com
   • The book describes the fear as a hundred times worse than the hangover. en.wiktionary.org
   • Hangxiety is a synonym formed by blending hangover and anxiety. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To suspect; to have doubts about something.

   Fear you not her courage?

   1591, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt,”

   Note

   Shakespeare's obsolete use carries no dread at all, only doubt. In Henry VI, Part 2, 'fear you not her courage' tells the listener not to doubt that she has the nerve. Read with the modern meaning, the line makes little sense, and that is the clue. It is a trap for readers of older drama, not a choice for writers today. Source

   Checked 30 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • The obsolete sense illustrated here means to suspect or doubt. en.wiktionary.org
   • In Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2, Hume says this line to Bolingbroke, reassuring him about the Duchess's courage. shakespeare.mit.edu
10. 10
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To frighten someone; to fill them with fear.

    Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs.

    c. 1590, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”

    Ythrild with deepe disdaine of his proud threat, She shortly thus; Fly they, that need to fly; Wordes fearen babes.

    1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene

    Note

    Here the fear runs the other way: the subject does the frightening and the object feels it. Spenser writes "Wordes fearen babes," and The Taming of the Shrew has "fear boys with bugs." Because the everyday "be afraid of" has the same shape, older texts need a careful eye. In Measure for Measure, a law set up "to fear the birds of prey" is meant to frighten them. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

    • In this obsolete transitive sense, fear means to frighten its object. en.wiktionary.org
    • Spenser wrote these words in The Faerie Queene, Book III, Canto IV, stanza 15; Britomart speaks them. talus.artsci.wustl.edu
    • Petruchio says these words in The Taming of the Shrew, Act 1, Scene 2. shakespeare.mit.edu
    • In Measure for Measure, Act 2, Scene 1, Angelo uses fear to mean frighten in his comparison of the law to a scarecrow. shakespeare.mit.edu
11. 11
    adjectivedialectal

    Able and capable; sturdy, strong, and in sound condition.

    Similarhale, sturdy, strong, robust, hearty

    Oppositefrail, feeble, weak, infirm

    Note

    A different word that happens to share the spelling: Old English fēre, 'able to go, fit for service'. It is unrelated in meaning to the emotion, though both trace back to a root *per-. It survives in dialect in the pairing hale and fear, much like hale and hearty. Source

    Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The adjective fear is a separate word derived from Old English fēre, meaning 'able to go, fit for service'. en.wiktionary.org
    • Its meaning concerns ability or fitness rather than the emotion. en.wiktionary.org
    • Both words are traced to Proto-Indo-European *per-. en.wiktionary.org