Forms: 1 fǽran, 3 færen, Orm. færenn, 3–6 fere, (4 fyre, 5 ferin, -yn, feyre), 3, 6 (Sc.) feir, 4–5 feer(e, 4–6 feare, (6 feair), 7 fare, 6– fear. [OE. fǽran (:—*færjan) wk. vb. to terrify, f. fær (see prec.); parallel derivatives in other Teut. langs., with senses varying according to those of the primary sb., are OS. fârôn to lie in wait; MDu. vaeren to fear; OHG. fârên, to plot against, to lie in wait, to endeavour after (MHG. vâren in same senses, also, rarely, to fear); ON. fǽra to taunt, slight.]
I. 1. trans. To inspire with fear; to frighten. Obs. exc. arch. or vulgar.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Deut. i. 18. Þa bodan us færdon.
c. 1200. Ormin, 675. He wile himm færenn.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 230. Auh heo neuede þo none leaue, bute one uort to offeren [v.r. fearen] him.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 6429. For þe mynde of þam myght men feer.
c. 1400. Sowdone Bab., 59.
| Here Bugles boldely for to blowe, | |
| To fere the beestis in þat launde. |
1485. Caxton, St. Wenefr., 20. I sawe a vysyon whiche moche fered me.
1548. Hall, Chron., 166. Women in Fraunce to feare their yong children, would crye, the Talbot commeth.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. ii. 2. Warwicke was a Bugge that fear’d vs all.
1641. Maisterton, Serm., 16. An old-wifes tale, fit for nothing but to fear fools.
c. 1665. Roxb. Ball., VII. 524.
| Our King must have Seamen and Souldiers most stout | |
| His enemies’ hearts for to fear. |
1801. H. MacNeill, Jack and Nancy, Poet. Wks. (1844), 46.
| Rude billows will rock me, when love smiles to cheer me, | |
| If thy slumber’s sweet, Jack, no dangers can fear me! |
1820. Keats, Isabella, viii.
| I … would not fear | |
| Thine eyes by gazing. |
1872. Lever, Lord Kilgobbin, xviii. Devil fear her!
† b. It fears me: = I am afraid. Obs.
1503. Hawes, The Example of Virtue, Prologe, 2.
| It fereth me sore for to endyte | |
| But at auenture I wyll now wryte. |
1646. Bp. Maxwell, Burden of Issachar, in Phenix (1708), II. 287. It feareth me besides, that God is punishing our present Sins, that by this Scourge, which is gilded with the specious, but spurious Compellation of a glorious thorow second Reformation, he is in the same Justice punishing the Sins of that first Reformation.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, 67.
| It fearis me muckil ye haif seen | |
| Quhat good man never knew. |
2. With pregnant sense.
† a. To drive away by fear, frighten away, scare (esp. birds or animals). Chiefly with away. Obs.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., I. 147. Eddres to sleyn & foules oute to fere is.
1504. Atkynson, trans. De Imitatione, III. xxvii. 219. Fyght strongly for me, & fere away the euyll bestes, that is to say my lecherous concupyssens, that I am moued & temted by.
1577. Northbrooke, Dicing (1579), 45 b. If there were nothing else to feare them away from this play.
1603. Shaks., Meas. for M., II. i. 1.
| Ang. We must not make a scar-crow of the Law, | |
| Setting it up to feare the Birds of prey, | |
| And let it keepe one shape, till custome make it | |
| Their pearch, and not their terror. |
1613. Dennys, Secrets of Angling, II., in Arb., Garner, I. 174.
| There some great fish doth fear the rest away, | |
| Whose fellowship and company they shun. |
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. IV. ii. § 7. 152. A Swallow flew about his head … and could not be feared from him.
a. 1631. Donne, The Storme, 52. Wks. 1873, II. 5.
| Some, sittinge on the hatches, wold seeme there, | |
| With hydeous gazinge to feare away Feare. |
† b. To deter from a course of conduct, etc. Const. from; also occas. followed by that … not.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 109 (title), Speculum de Antichristo, Hou anticrist & his clerkis feren trewe prestis fro prechynge of cristis gospel.
1393. Langland, P. Pl., C. XVIII. 285.
| Eueriche busshope, by þe lawe · sholde … | |
| Feden hem [hus peple] and [fillen] hem · and fere hem fro synne. |
1530. Tindale, Gen., Prol. Wks. I. 399. The ensamples … are written to fear the flesh, that we sin not.
1531. Frith, Judgm. Tracy, 251. He doth … fear us from putting any confidence in our own works.
1539. Taverner, Erasm. Prov. (1552), 3. To feare hym that he a yonge man shulde not prouoke S. Hierom at that tyme olde.
1583. Babington, Commandm., 135. Shall it not feare vs from so foule a custome?
a. 1632. T. Taylor, God’s Judgem., I. I. v. (1642), 184. Their example feared not the Cornishmen from rebelling upon the like occasion of a tax, under the conduct of the Lord Audley, untill by woefull experience they felt the same scourge.
† c. To drive by fear to, into. Obs.
1563. Foxe, A. & M., 788 a. It should somwhat touche them to be sene by werynes of pryson to feare him to it.
1646. J. Hall, Poems, I. 68.
| Nor will I … Lillies feare | |
| Into a Iandise. |
II. To feel fear; to regard with fear.
3. refl. (cf. 1 b) To be afraid. † Formerly const. of. Now only arch. in phrase I fear me.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 294 (Fairfax MS.).
| And ek so lowde his belle is runge, | |
| That of þe noise and of þe soun | |
| Men feeren hem in al þe toun | |
| Welmore þan þei don of þonder. |
1530. Palsgr., 547/2. I feared me alwayes that it wolde be so.
1590. Marlowe, Edw. II., II. iv. I fear me he is slain.
1608. S. Ward, in Abp. Ussher’s Lett. (1686), 26. I fear me, he will hardly get Copies.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 167. Verily I fear me that, priest as he is, some hopeless earthly love mingles with his friendship for that saintly woman.
1859. Tennyson, Lancelot & Elaine, 966.
| Ay, a flash, | |
| I fear me, that will strike my blossom dead. |
4. intr. in same sense.
† a. To fear of (rarely at): = sense 5.
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 1929. We fors not his frendship, ne fere of his hate.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), I. 173.
| And also he or she that mariage doth breke | |
| May fere of deth eternall whan they dye. |
c. 1600. Shaks., Sonnet cxv.
| Alas, why, fearing of Time’s tyranny, | |
| Might I not then say ‘Now I love you best,’ | |
| When I was certain o’er incertainty. |
1606. G. W[oodcocke], trans. Hist. Ivstine, 97 a. The men which had euer despised the Macedons, florishing in the Empire of the whole world; which feared not at the command of King Phillip.
b. with dependent clause: To feel alarmed or uneasy lest (something should happen).
(Closely approaching the trans. use with clause; cf. 7 b.)
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, xx. 455. He feered sore leste Reynawde sholde make to deye rychard of normandy.
1559. W. Cuningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, 38. I ever feare lest th’ Earth … should fall to the other part of the Heavens.
1691. trans. Emilianne’s Obs. Journ. Naples, 135. Fearing lest some Insurrection might be caus’d.
1823. F. Clissold, Ascent of Mont Blanc, 20. While detained by the cutting of steps, I felt a strong inclination to sleep, and feared lest I should drop down.
c. simply. (Blends with the absol. use of senses 5 and 7.) Phrase (colloq.), Never fear: = ‘there’s no danger of that.’
1588. Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, I. ii. 108.
| For blush-in cheekes by faults are bred, | |
| And feares by pale white showne: | |
| Then if she feare, or be to blame, | |
| By this you shall not know. |
c. 1590. Marlowe, Faust., Wks. (Rtldg.), 100/1. ’Tis but a surfeit; never fear, man.
1611. Bible, Gen. l. 19. And Ioseph saide vnto them, Feare not: for am I in the place of God?
1651. Hobbes, Govt. & Soc., i. § 2. 7. To … take heed, provide so that they may not fear.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., IV. ii. Fear not thou wedding guest!
1800. Cogan, Philos. Treat. Passions, I. ii. (1802), 102. As soon as we cease to fear, we begin to hope.
1838. Lytton, Lady of Lyons, II. i. I’ll find the occasion, never fear!
1888. Mrs. Parr, Runaways, in Longm. Mag., April, 640. I’m not going to blab on myself—never fear!
1893. Morley, in Westm. Gaz., 19 April, 3/2. Those only see aright into the future of civilised communities who hope—not those who fear.
5. trans. To regard with fear, be afraid of (a person or thing as a source of danger, an anticipated event or state of things as painful or evil).
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., x. Ther shulde non off hem growe to be like vnto hym; wich thynge is most to be fered off all þe worlde.
1477. Earl Rivers (Caxton), Dictes, 97. Thoo that sawe not yesterday Alexander ferede him gretely, and now thoo that see him fereth him not.
1530. Palsgr., 547/2. He feareth me above all the men lyvynge.
1563. Golding, Cæsar, 30 b. They feared not the enemy, but the narrownes of the wais, and the greatnes of the woods that laye betwene them and Ariouistus.
1611. Bible, 2 Esdras xii. 13. Behold, the dayes will come, that there shall rise vp a kingdome vpon earth, and it shall be feared aboue all the kingdomes that were before it.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Rem. (1664), 116. To fear the losse of the bell, more than the losse of the steeple.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 282. His violence thou fearst not.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Æneid, X. 1261.
| Nor Fate I fear, but all the Gods defy, | |
| Forbear thy threats, my business is to die. |
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 92. Every … person whom thou fearest.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., II. iii. 155. What man cannot understand he fears; and in all primary beliefs the powers around which seem to him so wayward are baleful, to be appeased by sacrifice or foiled by sorcery.
transf. c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, vi. 149. It [ye castell] fered no sawtyng on no side of it.
b. with inf. (vbl. sb., etc.) as object: To hesitate (to do something) through fear of the consequences; † to fear offence = to fear to offend.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, III. viii. 563–4. I often finde him barren, sleightlye running-over those glorious deathes, as if hee feared to attediate and molest vs with their multitude and continuance.
1700. Dryden, Cymon & Iphigenia, 113.
| Then would have spoke, but by his glimmering Sense | |
| First found his want of Words, and fear’d Offence. |
1794. Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xliv. Dorothee … feared to obey.
1799. trans. Diderot’s Natural Sin, ii. 26. You feared disturbing our tranquillity.
6. To regard with reverence and awe; to revere. Now only with God as obj.; formerly in wider sense.
a. 1400. Prymer (1891), 101. Gretly is thi word fyred.
1526. Tindale, Eph. v. 33. Lett the wyfe se that she feare her husbande.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 52.
| This nurse, this teeming Wombe of Royall Kings, | |
| Fear’d by their breed, and famous by their birth. |
1611. Bible, Ps. ciii. 13. The Lord pitieth them that feare him.
1715. De Foe, Fam. Instruct., I. i. (1841), I. 10. If you fear God, and serve God, as your father, and as his child, that is loving him; for they that love him, keep his commandments.
1827. Pollok, Course T., IV. 135. Who … feared nought but God.
7. To have an uneasy sense of the probability of (some unwelcome occurrence in the future); to apprehend. Opposed to hope for.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 87.
| He that but feares the thing, he would not know | |
| Hath by instinct knowledge from others eyes, | |
| That what he feard, is chanc’d. |
1759. Johnson, Rasselas, xxviii. If they have less to fear, they have less also to hope.
1861. M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 47. London had ceased to fear a foreign foe.
b. with subord. clause. To be afraid that (something will be or is the case). In negative sentences the clause may be introduced by but or but that = that … not. Also with direct obj. and to be or simple complement; rarely, with inf. as obj. Also parenthetically.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 16 b. I feare sore that many chrysten people … do as the chyldren of Israel dyd.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Huon, lxi. 212. Fere not but ye shalbe well payed.
1593. Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., V. vi. 12. The Theefe doth feare each bush an Officer.
1638. Sir R. Baker, trans. Letters of Mounsieur de Balzac, I. 25. Never feare that I will impaire his ill nights.
1658–9. Burton’s Diary (1828), IV. 47. I fear they are troubled with King’s evil.
1667. Milton, P. L., I. 628.
| But what power of mind | |
| Foreseeing or presaging, from the Depth | |
| Of knowledge past or present, could have fear’d, | |
| How such united force of Gods, how such | |
| As stood like these, could ever know repulse? |
1692. trans. Zingis, 11. He feared with reason to be unable to do any thing for Zingis.
1726. Adv. Capt. R. Boyle, 47. I fear’d it would be about two hundred Pounds in this Country.
1771. Mrs. Griffith, trans. Viaud’s Shipwreck, 255. I fear much that of the sixteen persons … three only of us have survived.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 225. He might do so without fearing that the Five Mile Act would be enforced.
1857. Trollope, Three Clerks, v. I fear we are all in your black books.
1863. Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 16. Minuteness of detail, and fidelity in the account of my daily doings, will hardly, I fear, render my letters very interesting to you now.
8. a. † trans. (Perh. originally const. dat.: cf. L. timere alicui). To be apprehensive about, to fear something happening to (obs.). b. In same sense intr.; const. for, † of.
1526. Tindale, Gal. iv. 11. I feare off you, lest I have bestowed on you laboure in vayne.
c. 1530. Ld. Berners, Arth. Lyt. Bryt. (1814), 213. Arthur fered his horse, lest that the lyon sholde haue slayne hym.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., I. i. 137.
| The King is sickly, weake, and melancholly, | |
| And his Physitians feare him mightily. |
1611. Tourneur, The Atheist’s Tragedie, V. i.
| Doct. If any roote of life remaines within ’em | |
| Capable of Phisicke feare ’em not, my Lord. |
1647. N. Bacon, Discourse of the Laws & Government of England, II. i. (1682), 6. This the people soon felt, and feared their own Free-holds: for they are bound, saith he, not to see the Corwn deflowred for want of maintenance.
1686. Dryden, Horace, I. xxix. 10.
| Then let the greedy Merchant fear | |
| For his ill-gotten gain; | |
| And pray to Gods that will not hear, | |
| While the debating winds and billows bear | |
| His Wealth into the Main. |
1695. Prior, Ode death Q. Mary, 45.
| See, pious King, with diff’rent strife | |
| Thy struggling Albion’s bosom torn: | |
| So much she fears for William’s life, | |
| That Mary’s fate she dares not mourn. |
1841. Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 11. I fear for thee that the same will befal thee that happened in the case of the ass and the bull and the husbandman.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxiii. (1856), 284, note. Our commander, then so ill with scurvy that we feared for his recovery.
† c. In 18th c., when the vb. was conjugated negatively, a following negative was often illogically omitted, so that the vb. seems to mean: To apprehend the non-occurrence of (some event).
a. 1699. Stillingfl., Serm., Wks. 1710, I. 619. We need not fear a gracious answer.
1747. S. Fielding, Lett. David Simple, I. ii. 63. I liked him, and was so accustomed to the Addresses of every Man by whom I was seen, that I did not at all fear his immediately becoming one of my Train.
1771. T. Hull, Hist. Sir W. Harrington (1797), IV. 211. If I apply for it, I don’t fear its being granted.
† 9. To regard with distrust; to doubt. Obs.
1578. T. Nicholas, trans. Conq. W. India (1596), 16–7. The governour feared the wisedome and courage of his kinsman.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1653), 681.
| And if a bird it tast to fill his hunger fell, | |
| It dies assured death, none need it fear. |
1730–6. Bailey (folio), Fear … to doubt or question.
