stare down
verb
Simple meaning
Overcome or cause to waver or submit by staring.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
stehrdownSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈstɛɹˈdaʊn
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
Overcome or cause to waver or submit by (or as if by) staring
transitive
To overcome or make uncomfortable by staring intently.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Overcome or cause to waver or submit by (or as if by) staring
Used this way, stare down is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
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.