stares

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of stare.

   He stares at the chessboard for minutes before making a move.

   The toddler stares at strangers with open curiosity.

   Note

   Three constructions share this one form. Most often it is intransitive and takes at: she stares at the screen. It can also be transitive, meaning to move someone by looking: he stares her into silence. A thing can stare as well, when its color, size or brilliance makes it glaringly conspicuous, with no eyes involved. An obsolete use meant to bristle or stand out.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of stare.

   She walked through the lobby under the curious stares of the waiting crowd.

   The actors held their lines despite the flat stares of an unimpressed audience.

   Note

   Two different nouns hide behind this plural. Usually it counts fixed gazes, often from several onlookers at once, as in the curious stares of a crowd. In older writing, though, a stare could be a starling, so stares there may mean birds rather than eyes. The spelling is also shared with the present-tense verb, and only the sentence around it tells them apart.

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