fear Hear it!

fear Definition

fear (fir)

noun

  1. a feeling of anxiety and agitation caused by the presence or nearness of danger, evil, pain, etc.; timidity; dread; terror; fright; apprehension
  2. respectful dread; awe; reverence
  3. a feeling of uneasiness or apprehension; concern a fear that it will rain
  4. a cause for fear; possibility; chance there was no fear of difficulty

Etymology: ME fer < OE fær, lit., sudden attack, akin to OHG fāra, ambush, snare: for IE base see peril

transitive verb

  1. Obsolete to fill with fear; frighten
  2. to be afraid of; dread
  3. to feel reverence or awe for
  4. to expect with misgiving; suspect I fear I am late

intransitive verb

  1. to feel fear; be afraid
  2. to be uneasy, anxious, or doubtful

fear Idioms

for fear of

in order to avoid or prevent; lest

Fear Definition

Fear (fir)

cape on an island off the SE coast of N.C.

fear Synonyms

fear

n.

  1. Alarm occasioned by immediate danger

    dread, fright, terror, horror, panic, alarm, consternation, dismay, awe, scare, abhorrence, revulsion, aversion, tremor, bodily fear, mortal terror, funk*, cold feet*, cold sweat*, chills*; see also sense 2.

    Antonyms courage*, intrepidity, dash.

  2. General apprehension

    anxiety, trepidation, dread, timidity, cowardice, misgiving, trembling, uneasiness, fear and trembling, disquietude, perturbation, phobia, bugbear, irresolution, fearfulness, foreboding, despair, agitation, hesitation, nervousness, jumpiness, worry, concern, suspicion, doubt, qualm, presentiment, faintheartedness, timorousness, abject fear, the creeps*; see also sense 1; cowardice, nervousness 1.

    Antonyms courage*, bravery, boldness.

fear is the general term for the anxiety and agitation felt at the presence of danger; dread refers to the fear or depression felt in anticipating something dangerous or disagreeable to live in dread of poverty; fright applies to a sudden, shocking, usually momentary fear the mouse gave her a fright; alarm implies the fright felt at the sudden realization of danger he felt alarm at the sight of the pistol; terror applies to an overwhelming, often paralyzing fear the terror of soldiers in combat; panic refers to a frantic, unreasoning fear, often one that spreads quickly and leads to irrational, aimless action the cry of ``fire!"" created a panic

for fear of

to avoid, lest, in order to prevent.

fear Synonyms

fear

v.

  1. To anticipate immediate danger

    be afraid, be frightened, be alarmed, lose courage, falter, stand in awe of, be scared, stand aghast, live in terror, dare not, have qualms, cower, take fright, quaver, flinch, shrink, quail, quake, cringe, shudder, freeze, turn pale, blanch, start, tremble, shy, lose one's nerve, break out in a sweat*, get cold feet*, chicken out*, wimp out*.

    Antonyms outface, withstand, dare.

  2. To be apprehensive

    apprehend, dread, fret; see worry 2.

fear Usage Examples

Object

  • reprisal: Other members of staff are said to have not filed complaints because they had feared reprisals.

Converse of object

  • allay: By providing a full analysis of a project's effects, an environmental statement can help to allay fears created by lack of information.
  • overcome: He took up aerobatics in 1994 originally to overcome a fear of flying in extreme attitudes.
  • dispel: Introduction to lobbying Introduction to what lobbying is and dispelling common fears of how to get involved.
  • spark: Soccer: Agent sparks fears Soccer: Daddy Danns's double Soccer: Attitude is praised by Williams Soccer: Colchester United.. .
  • express: It would seem that some of the fears expressed by people have been coming true, i.e. low grading.
  • conquer: The ones who conquer fear through repetition, through sweat, through clenched teeth.

Adjective modifier

  • irrational: Being proud to have made it Have you got any irrational fears or phobias?
  • well-founded: The Polish government-in-exile had very well-founded fears that the Soviet Union would simply replace Nazi Germany as occupiers of the country.
  • constant: Whilst Anne was in hiding she kept a diary describing the isolation that they felt and their constant fear of discovery.
  • genuine: There is a genuine fear throughout the country that expansion of our cities is being forced on us without proper local consultation.
  • exaggerated: The mixture of disgust and exaggerated fear in that interview was wonderful and ancient.

Modifies a noun

  • factory: There are nods to Fear Factory and Diamond Head with an overwhelming theme of doom-laden ferocity.

Noun used with modifier

  • relegation: While todays game will be a pressure cooker for former boss Peter Taylor Leicester have a great chance to ease their relegation fears.

Preposition: of

  • reprisal: The Socialist revolutionaries, who had been freed from imprisonment, gave themselves up in fear of reprisals.
  • crime: Sgt Travis said: " The fear of crime is greater than the reality, without a shadow of doubt.
  • persecution: Many naturalized citizens chose to change their names for fear of persecution.
  • unknown: Fear of the unknown, fear of the end.
  • rejection: They will lose fear of rejection and will not be afraid.
  • retribution: This includes altering it and redistributing, without fear of retribution from a ' copyright ' holder.
fear Quotes

We are nearer today to the ideal of the abolition of poverty and fear from the lives of men and women than ever before in any land.

—Hoover, Herbert Clark

Ah Fear! Ah frantic Fear! I see, I see thee near.

—Collins,William

No coward soul is mine, No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere: I see Heaven's glories shine, And faith shines equal, arming me from fear.

—Bronte«  , EmilyJane

Still as he fled, his eye was backward cast, As if his fear still followed him behind.

—Spenser, Edmund

Tragedy isthus a representationof anactionthat isworth serious attention, complete in itself and of some amplitude†by means of pityand fear bringing about the purgation of such emotions.

—Aristotle

His trust was with the eternal to be deemed Equal in strength, and rather than be less Cared not to be at all; with that care lost Went all his fear.

—Milton,John

   The concessions of the weak are the concessions of fear.

—Burke, Edmund

   Well, I will scourge those apes, And to these courteous eyes oppose a mirror, As large as is the stage whereon we act; Where they shall see the time's deformity Anatomised in every nerve, and sinew, With constant courage, and contempt of fear.

—Jonson, Ben

An editor must always be with the peopleöthink with themöfeel with themöand he need fear nothing, he will always be rightöalways be strongöalways free.

—Bennett,James Gordon, Snr

A useful word previously unknown to me: 'ergophobia', meaning 'fear or hatred of work'. At last I can define myself in one word.

—Tynan, Kenneth

He has not learned the lesson of life who does not every day surmount a fear.

—Emerson, RalphWaldo

   I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow. I feel my fate in what I cannot fear. I learn by going where I have to go.

—Rogers,Will

They fulfil their vows, and fear a day whose evil is upon the wing; they give food, for the love of Him, to the needy, the orphan, the captive: 'We feed you only for the Face of God; we desire no recompense from you, no thankfulness.'

—The Koran

Not Chaos, not The darkest pit of lowest Erebus Nor aught of blinder vacancy, scooped out By help of dreamsöcan breed such fear and awe As fall upon us often when we look Into our Minds, into the Mind of Manö My haunt, and the main region of my song.

—Wordsworth,William

O worship the L in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.

—Bible (Old Testament)

To survive in grand prix racing, you need to be afraid. Fear is an important feeling. It helps you to race longer and live longer. See Berger 79:93.

—Senna, Ayrton

And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

I feared for her as I loved her, and the fear intensified the love.

—James, CliveVivian Leopold

Let me assert my belief that the only thing that we have to fear is fear itselfönameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror that paralyses needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

—Roosevelt, Franklin D(elano)

Doubt is a necessary precondition tomeaningful action. Fear is the great mover in the end.

—Barthelme, Donald

   I never dared be radical when young For fear it would make me conservative when old.

—Frost, Robert Lee

The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. He makes me down to lie In pastures green: he leadeth me the quiet waters by. My soul he doth restore again: and me to walk doth make Within the paths of righteousness, ev'n for his own name's sake. Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale, yet will I fear no ill: For thou art with me; and thy rod and staff me comfort still.

—Scottish Metrical Psalms

Any manwhose love of horses isstronger thanhis fear of being an absurdity is all right with me.

—50 Cent originally  CurtisJackson

The fear of every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end. 450

—Jonson, Ben

   Fear of Fifty.

—Jong, Erica ne¤  e Mann

And always keep a hold of Nurse For fear of finding something worse.

—Belloc, (Joseph) Hilaire Pierre

I play with the fear of letting people down. That's what motivates me.

—Wilkinson,Jonny

Up the airy mountain, Down the rushy glen, We daren't go a-hunting, For fear of little men; Wee folk, good folk, Trooping all together; Green jacket, red cap, And white owl's feather!

—Allingham,William

Often, the fear of one evil leadsus into inflicting onethat is worse.

—Boileau (Despre¤  aux), Nicolas

The National Debt is a very Good Thing, and it would be dangerous to pay it off for fear of Political Economy.

—J(ulian)

   To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin That makes calamity of so long life; For who would fardels bear, till Birnam Wood do come to Dunsinane, But that the fear of something after death Murders the innocent sleep, Great nature's second course, And makes us rather sling the arrows of outrageous fortune Than fly to others that we know not of. There's the respect must give us pause: Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

—Twain, Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens

The love of justice in most men is simply the fear of suffering injustice.

—La Rochefoucauld, Fran c° ois, 6th Duc de

He had a fear of the dead, and of all inanimate things, rising up around himto claim him; it isthe fearof thepre- eminently solitary child and solitary man.

—Ackroyd, Peter

The fear of the L is the beginning of wisdom.

—Bible (Old Testament)

There is one expanding horror in American life. It is that our long odyssey toward liberty, democracy and freedom-for-all may be achieved in such a way that utopia remains forever closed, and we live in freedom and hell, debased of style, not individual from one another, void of courage, our fear rationalized away.

—Mailer, Norman Kingsley

How anyone can fear that the British electorate, whatever mistakesitcanmake or maycondone, canever go too far or too fast is incomprehensible† The Labour Party, when in due course it comes to be entrusted with power, will naturally not want to do everything at once. Once we facethenecessityof putting our principles into execution from one end of the kingdom to the other, the inevitabilityof gradualness cannot failtobe appreciated.

—Webb, SidneyJames

Thereisa certainbasis oftruth inthefear thatthe Russian government is beginning to have of communism, for communism isTsarist autocracy turned upside down.

—Herzen, Alexander Ivanovich

Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Death, in itself, is nothing; but we fear, To be we know not what, we know not where.

—Dryden,John

Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of themshall not fall ontheground without your Father.But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

—Bible (NewTestament)

Life is first boredom, then fear.

—Larkin, Philip Arthur

Proudly the note of the trumpet is sounding, Loudly the war-cries arise on the gale, Fleetly the steed by Loc Suilig is bounding To join the thick squadrons in Saimear's green vale. On, every mountaineer, Strangers to flight and fear: Rush to the standard of dauntless Red Hugh! Bonnought and gallowglass, Throng from each mountain-pass! On for old ErinöO'Donnell abu!

—McCann, M(ichael) J(oseph)

O born in days when wits were fresh and clear, And life ran gaily as the sparklingThames: Before this strange disease of modern life, With its sick hurry, its divided aims, Its heads o'ertaxed, its palsied hearts, was rifeö Fly hence, our contact fear!

—Arnold, Matthew

'Tisjust likea summerbirdcageinagarden; thebirdsthat are without despair toget in, and thebirdsthat are within despair, and are in a consumption, for fear they shall never get out.

—Webster,John

Fair seed-time had my soul, and I grew up Fostered alike by beauty and by fear.

—Wordsworth,William

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential freedoms.The first isfreedom of speech and expression, everywhere in the world.The second is the freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, everywhere in the world.The third is freedom from want† The fourth is freedom from fear.

—Roosevelt, Franklin D(elano)

My life has crept so long on a broken wing Through cells of madness, haunts of horror and fear, That I come to be grateful at last for a little thing.

—Tennyson

   Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.One thing have I desired of the L, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the L all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the L, and to inquire in his temple.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Yet I strode on austere; No hope could have no fear.

—Thomson,James pseudonym 'BV',ByssheVanolis

In fear begotten, I begot in fear. Would you have had me cast fear out So that you should not be?

—Graves, Robert von Ranke

In Place of Fear.

—Bevan, Aneurin

Better is little with the fear of the L than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith.

—Bible (Old Testament)

   Love mixed with fear is sweetness.

—Webster,John

Mankind, fear your Lord, who created you of a single soul, and from it created its mate, and from the pair of them scattered abroad many men and women; and fear God by whom you demand one of another, and the wombs; surely God ever watches over you.

—The Koran

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things to desire and many things to fear.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

There is no passion in the mind of man so weak, but it mates and mastersthefearofdeath. And therefore death is no such terrible enemy, when a man hath so many attendants about him that can win the combat of him. Revenge triumphs over death; love slights it; honour aspireth to it; grief flieth to it.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased with tales, so is the other.

—Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans

For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is fromthe west, so far hath heremoved our transgressions from us.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Neither fear nor courage saves us.Unnatural vices Are fathered by our heroism.Virtues Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

Now hollow fires burn out to black And lamps are guttering low. Square your shoulders, lift your pack, And leave your friends and go. Oh, never fear, man, nought's to dread Look not left nor right. In all the endless road you tread, There's nothing but the night.

—Housman, A(lfred) E(dward)

Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Together let us explore the stars.

—Kennedy,John F(itzgerald)

You need have no fear of any failure.

—Fawcett, Percy Harrison

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting than fear. Burke

—Burke, Edmund

O taste and see that the L isgood: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.O fear the L, ye his saints: for there isno wanttothemthat fear him.The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the L shall not want any good thing.

—Bible (Old Testament)

O believers, fear God, and be with the truthful ones.

—The Koran

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.

—Bible (NewTestament)

  Pity is lost in rage and fear.

—Carlyle,Thomas

Subconsciously every one was, of course, fearful that he himself would go nutsöeveryone with the exception of those who had already gone nuts, who were in the wholly pleasant situation of having no fear.

—cummings, e e pen name of  Edward Estlin Cummings

Yet where an equal poise of hope and fear Does arbitrate the event, my nature is That I incline to hope, rather than fear, And gladly banish squint suspicion.

—Milton,John

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.

—Bible (NewTestament)

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

—Bible (NewTestament)

Cultured people practise self-examination with trepidation and fear.

—I Ching   c.2000

People out of work are not given to talking much about the one thing on their minds.You only sense by indirection, degrees of anger, shades of humiliation and echoes of fear.

—Evans,Walker

Oderint, dum metuant. Let them hate, so long as they fear.

—Accius

The fear that kills; And hope that is unwilling to be fed. 926

—Wordsworth,William

   There is a lurking fear that some things are not meant 'to be known', that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.

—Sagan, Carl Edward

Death stands above me, whispering low I know not what into my ear; Of his strange language all I know Is, there is not a word of fear.

—Landor,Walter Savage

As repressed sadists are supposed to become policemen or butchers, so those with an irrational fearof life become publishers.

—Connolly, Cyril Vernon

Like one, that on a lonesome road Doth walk in fear and dread, And having once turned round walks on, And turns no more his head; Because he knows, a frightful fiend Doth close behind him tread.

—Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

Well-founded fear, whichtakes onethrough the valleyof the shadow of death without abandoning one there, is what makes the worst of worse journeys; the situation is made all the more intense when the fear is somehow mingled with delight.

—Woodcock, George

   The L is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the L is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

—Bible (Old Testament)

Dominus illuminatio mea, et salus mea, quem timebo? The Lord is the source of my light and my safety, so whom shall I fear?

—Bible (Vulgate)

   The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord G106 hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

—Bible (Old Testament)

Why fear death? It's the most beautiful adventure in life.

—Frohman, Charles

A man of your head and hair should owe more to that reverend ceremony, and not mountthemarriage bed like atown-bull, ora mountain-goat; but stay the dueseason and ascend it then with religion and fear.

—Jonson, Ben

Browse dictionary entries near fear

  1. fealty
  2. fe
  3. FDX
  4. FDR
  5. FDN
  6. FDMA
  7. FDM
  8. FDIC
  9. FDDI
  10. FDD
  1. Fear of a Cyber Apocalypse Era
  2. fear premium
  3. fearful
  4. fearfully
  5. fearless
  6. fearnought
  7. fearsome
  8. feasance
  9. feasibility
  10. feasible