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Anxious vs Fear - What's the difference?

anxious | fear |

As an adjective anxious

is full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, especially respecting something future or unknown; being in painful suspense;—applied to persons; as, anxious for the issue of a battle.

As a noun fear is

grass.

anxious

English

(Anxiety) (Webster 1913)

Alternative forms

* anctious (obsolete)

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • Full of anxiety or disquietude; greatly concerned or solicitous, especially respecting something future or unknown; being in painful suspense;—applied to persons; as, anxious for the issue of a battle.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Thanks to that penny he had just spent so recklessly [on a newspaper] he would pass a happy hour, taken, for once, out of his anxious , despondent, miserable self. It irritated him shrewdly to know that these moments of respite from carking care would not be shared with his poor wife, with careworn, troubled Ellen.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=19 citation , passage=Meanwhile Nanny Broome was recovering from her initial panic and seemed anxious to make up for any kudos she might have lost, by exerting her personality to the utmost. She took the policeman's helmet and placed it on a chair, and unfolded his tunic to shake it and fold it up again for him.}}
  • *{{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 13, author=Alistair Magowan, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Sunderland 0-1 Man Utd , passage=But, with United fans in celebratory mood as it appeared their team might snatch glory, they faced an anxious wait as City equalised in stoppage time.}}
  • Accompanied with, or causing, anxiety; worrying;—applied to things; as, anxious labor.
  • *(John Milton) (1608-1674)
  • *:The sweet of life, from which God hath bid dwell far off all anxious cares.
  • Earnestly desirous; as, anxious to please.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:He sneers alike at those who are anxious to preserve and at those who are eager for reform.
  • Usage notes

    * Anxious is followed by for, about, concerning, etc., before the object of solicitude.

    Synonyms

    * careful * concerned * disturbed * restless * solicitous * uneasy * unquiet * watchful

    fear

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) feer, fere, fer, from (etyl) . The verb is from (etyl) feren, from (etyl) , from the noun.

    Noun

  • (lb) A strong, uncontrollable, unpleasant emotion caused by actual or perceived danger or threat.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed.}}
  • *
  • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear .
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=18 citation , passage=‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police
  • (lb) A phobia, a sense of fear induced by something or someone.
  • *
  • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.
  • (lb) Extreme veneration or awe, as toward a supreme being or deity.
  • * Bible, (w)
  • I will put my fear in their hearts.
  • * Bible, (Psalms)
  • I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
    Synonyms
    * , terror, fright * , anxiety, apprehension * (extreme veneration) awe, reverence, veneration * See also
    Derived terms
    * affear * fearful * fearless * fearmonger * fearnaught * fearsome * no fear

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause fear to; to frighten.
  • * :
  • Thenne the knyghte sayd to syre Gawayn / bynde thy wounde or thy blee chaunge / for thou bybledest al thy hors and thy fayre armes // For who someuer is hurte with this blade he shalle neuer be staunched of bledynge / Thenne ansuerd gawayn hit greueth me but lytyl / thy grete wordes shalle not feare me ne lasse my courage
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Tush, tush! fear boys with bugs.
  • (label) To feel fear about (something); to be afraid of; to consider or expect with alarm.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • I greatly fear my money is not safe.
  • *
  • At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear —man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author= Mark Tran
  • , volume=189, issue=6, page=1, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Denied an education by war , passage=One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools
  • (lb) To venerate; to feel awe towards.
  • (lb) Regret.
  • (lb) To be anxious or solicitous for.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • The sins of the father are to be laid upon the children, thereforeI fear you.
  • (lb) To suspect; to doubt.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Fear you not her courage?
    Synonyms
    * be afraid of, be frightened of, be scared of, be terrorised/terrorized be * (venerate) be in awe of, revere, venerate
    Derived terms
    * fear not * God-fearing * never fear

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) fere, feore, from (etyl) . Related to (l).

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (dialectal) Able; capable; stout; strong; sound.
  • hale and fear

    Statistics

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