scare off
verb
Simple meaning
To cause to flee by frightening it.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
skehrawfSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈskɛˈɹɔf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To cause (something) to flee by frightening it.
transitive
To deter.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: To cause (something) to flee by frightening it.
Used this way, scare off is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly unfavourable pull. It sounds natural in ordinary conversation and in expressive writing alike.
- Emotional tone
- Negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Gentle
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Serious and weighty
- Usage feel
- Everyday but emotionally strong
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.