fear
Meanings
- A strong, unpleasant emotion or feeling caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
- A phobia, a sense of fear induced by something or someone in particular.
- Something one is afraid of; the object of one’s fear.
- Terrified veneration or reverence, particularly towards God, gods, or sovereigns.
- A feeling of dread and anxiety when waking after drinking a lot of alcohol, wondering what one did while drunk.
- To be afraid of (something or someone); to consider or expect (something or someone) with alarm.
- To feel fear.
- To worry about, to feel concern for, to be afraid for [with for].
- To venerate; to feel awe towards.
- To regret.
- To cause fear to; to frighten.
- To be anxious or solicitous for.
- To suspect; to doubt.
- Able; capable; stout; strong; sound.
- A surname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English feer, fere, fer (“fear”), 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 go through, carry forth, try”). Cognate with Dutch gevaar (“danger, risk, peril”), German Gefahr (“danger, hazard, risk”), Danish fare (“danger, hazard, risk”), Faroese and Icelandic fár (“accident, anger, calamity”), Norwegian fare (“danger”), Swedish fara (“danger, risk, peril”), Latin perīculum (“danger, risk, trial”), Ancient Greek πεῖρα (peîra, “trial, experiment”), Armenian փորձ (pʻorj, “attempt”). 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”).