stare Hear it!

stare Definition

stare (ster)

intransitive verb stared, star′·ing

  1. to gaze or look steadily with eyes wide open, as in fear, admiration, wonder, incomprehension, etc.
  2. Now Rare
    1. to stand out conspicuously staring bones
    2. to stand on end, as hair

Etymology: ME staren < OE starian, akin to ON stara < Gmc *stara-, having fixed eyes, rigid < IE base *(s)ter-, rigid, stiff > stark, Gr strēnēs, hard

transitive verb

  1. to look fixedly at to stare a person up and down
  2. to affect in a given way by staring to stare someone into confusion

noun

the act of staring; steady or vacant look or gaze

stare Related Forms
star′er noun
stare Idioms

stare down

to stare back at (another) until the gaze of the one stared at is turned away

stare someone in the face

  1. to look at someone steadily and intently
  2. to be imminent, pressing, or inescapable
stare Synonyms

stare

v.

gaze, gawk, look fixedly; see look 2, watch 1.

stare Usage Examples

Preposition: at

  • ceiling: He lay on his back, wide awake, staring at the ceiling.
  • screen: Has Ed spent too many nights staring at the screen?

Preposition: into

  • abyss: James Callaghan for opposing laws curbing Trade Union power in 1968, as Britain stared into the industrial relations abyss that became the Seventies?
  • blackness: Flint stayed at the mine overnight, making her way to the closest entrance and staring into the blackness.

Adjective modifier

  • glassy: The Tiber sends back a glassy stare in the darkness.
  • wide-eyed: When I asked about the severe discipline at El Bulli, he fixed me with a wide-eyed stare.
  • blank: They usually give me a blank stare or say it's an interesting question.
  • vacant: And I'm sure, beneath the vacant stare, he's a lovely man.
  • icy: Rocky Horror Picture Show Whilst dressing up is not mandatory, you will receive icy stares, should you not... Mystery Event info.

Modifies a noun

  • decisis: The leading authority on the doctrine of stare decisis under the law of England is Cross and Harris on precedent in English Law.

Modifying Another Word

  • blankly: There were fifty pairs of eyes staring blankly at me.

Noun used with modifier

  • nativity: Created substitute programs to child's nativity stares quot cases were in the book.

Adjective complement

  • open-mouthed: Hundreds of onlookers lining the Promenade have stared open-mouthed at the eye-catching displays.
  • aghast: In Dr. Frazer's office, Traynor is staring aghast at the file.
  • wide-eyed: D sat staring wide-eyed at the image of a faded naked woman.

Particle object:

  • barrel: They stared down the barrels of the guns which would kill them.

Preposition: in

  • amazement: Sora, Sidious, Goofy and Donald just stood there staring in amazement at the mysterious figure take care of all the monsters.
  • disbelief: Even the most organized women can find themselves staring in disbelief at a positive pregnancy test.
  • awe: She stared in awe at the vision her eyes were transfixed upon.

Followed by an intransitive particle

  • across: After a while, I went out on to the balcony and stared across at the club and the buildings that lay beyond it.
stare Quotes

   Any one watching keenly the stealthy convergence of human lots, sees a slow preparation of effects from one life on another, which tells like a calculated irony on the indifference or the frozen stare with which we look at our unintroduced neighbour.

—Eliot, George pseudonym of  MaryAnn Evans

What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?

—Davies,W(illiam) H(enry)

Gorgonised me from head to foot With a stony British stare.

—Tennyson

Old Hodge stays not his hand, but whips to kennel The renegade.God's peace betide the souls Of the pure in heart. But in the box that fennel Grows around, are two red eyes that stare like coals.

—Ransom,John Crowe

I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs Perceived the scene, and foretold the restö I too awaited the expected guest. He, the young man carbuncular, arrives, A small house agent's clerk, with one bold stare, One of the low on whom assurance sits As a silk hat on a Bradford millionaire.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)