scared

1. 1
   afraidadjective

   Feeling fear or alarm, especially in response to something threatening or unexpected.

   Like the instinct that freezes a rabbit when a hawk's shadow passes over it.

   He was too scared to open the basement door.

   The hikers grew scared as the storm closed in around them.

   UsageUsually scared of something, scared to do something, or scared (that) + clause. The person is scared; the thing that frightens is scary.

   Similarafraid, frightened, fearful, terrified, alarmed

   Oppositeunafraid, fearless, brave, calm

2. 2
   gave a frightverb

   Simple past and past participle of scare.

   The sudden bang scared everyone in the meeting room.

   The campers were scared by strange sounds in the night.

   Note

   Here the word is the verb at work, with someone or something doing the frightening: the bang scared everyone. With have it builds the perfect (it had scared them). With be it builds the passive, and a by-phrase naming the cause usually points to the verb rather than the adjective of feeling, though the adjective can take one too. Scare also runs intransitively, of someone who takes fright, so scared can report reacting as well as frightening.

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