From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishscarescare1 /skeə $ sker/ ●●● S2 verb 1 [transitive]FRIGHTENED to make someone feel frightened SYN frighten, → afraid Loud noises can scare animals or birds.scare the life/living daylights/hell etc out of somebody (=scare someone very much) The alarm scared the hell out of me.scare the pants off somebody informal (=scare someone very much)2 → scare easily → scare somebody into something → scare somebody/something ↔ off/away → scare something ↔ up→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
scare• Tracks can hardly afford to scare away the best horses now that rich races are plentiful and horse transportation is routine.• Dad stormed out and I was so scared he was blaming me that I started crying.• He remembered the menacing phone-calls to Nicola and wondered aloud whether some one from a drugs syndicate had been trying to scare her.• It scared him to think that his mother might never recover.• All the stuff he said about spiders kind of scared me.• They were sexually inexperienced at marriage, and scared of babies.• The procedure is an effective means of scaring off applicants.• Today, he scares the hell out of a lot of Republicans.• She scared the hell out of me when she said she had to go into hospital.• Don't creep up on me like that! You scared the living daylights out of me!• He was scared to death, and his head was almost shaved like new recruits in armies the world over.• He was driving fast just to scare us.• We're not really going to get arrested - I think the police are trying to scare us.scare the pants off somebody• Lovely people who scared the pants off him.• The tests scare the pants off many managers.• It took ten minutes to reach Honey Cottage, with Yanto trying his best to scare the pants off Mary.• Though, mind you, it scares the pants off poor old Crumwallis.scarescare2 ●○○ noun 1 [singular]FRIGHTENED a sudden feeling of fear You really gave us a scare!2 [countable]FRIGHTENED a situation in which a lot of people become frightened about something a bomb scare a health scareExamples from the Corpus
scare• Aids has caused such a scare that fewer and fewer people are giving blood.• The game was delayed due to a bomb scare.• Retail sales were down due to a spate of bomb scares before Christmas.• Whatever you may think about the morality of abortion, these are the most deplorable scare tactics.• a health scare• Some people, nervous about the health scare over cellular phones, have started using hands-free apparatus.• And behind bars ... puppy is seized in rabies scare.• The media buy into the scam because such scare stories about unseen threats make good headlines.• A year after Chernobyl the scare about radioactive food had died down.• If she wishes to attach herself to the scare, I am delighted.• The scare has been blown out of proportion, said John Marchello, professor of animal science at the University of Arizona.• That said, I think most virus scares are overblown.bomb scare• The previous day also the factory was evacuated after a bomb scare.• Apparently there had been a bomb scare recently.• Cross-channel ferries held up by a bomb scare ...• Following the find, the centre was evacuated again because of a bomb scare which police believe was a hoax.• She says that they were told that it was a bomb scare.• No, not the usual boring bomb scare, but a cultural occasion of enormous significance.Origin scare1 (1100-1200) Old Norse skirra, from skjarr “shy, fearful” 