scare

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
scare

▶verb

• 1 cause great fear or nervousness in; frighten.

  ■ (scare someone away/off) drive or keep someone away by frightening them.

  ■ become scared.

• 2 (scare something up) informal, chiefly N. Amer. find or obtain something.

▶noun a sudden attack of fright.

■ a period of general anxiety or alarm about something: a bomb scare.

– derivatives
scared adjective,
scarer noun.

– origin ME: from ON skirra ‘frighten’, from skjarr ‘timid’.