Horrible vs Scare - What's the difference?
horrible | scare |
A thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act.
* 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby Dick
* 1982 , United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, The Genocide Convention: Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate
* 1991 , Alastair Scott, Tracks Across Alaska: A Dog Sled Journey
* 2000 , John Dean,
* 2001 , Neil K. Komesar, Law's Limits: The Rule of Law and the Supply and Demand of Rights
A person wearing a comic or grotesque costume in a parade of horribles.
Causing horror; terrible; shocking.
*
*:Such a scandal as the prosecution of a brother for forgery—with a verdict of guilty—is a most truly horrible , deplorable, fatal thing. It takes the respectability out of a family perhaps at a critical moment, when the family is just assuming the robes of respectability:it is a black spot which all the soaps ever advertised could never wash off.
*, comment=The New Yorker, March 19
, passage=Strangers fainted dead away at the sight of the Laughing Man's horrible face. Acquaintances shunned him.}}
*, author=(Ray Bradbury)
, passage=Some of us have had plastic surgery on our faces and fingerprints. Right now we have a horrible job; we're waiting for the war to begin and, as quickly, end.}}
Tremendously wrong or errant.
*{{quote-book, year=1933, title=(My Life and Hard Times), author=(James Thurber)
, passage=Her own mother lived the latter years of her life in the horrible suspicion that electricity was dripping invisibly all over the house.}}
A minor fright.
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=June 4
, author=Phil McNulty
, title=England 2 - 2 Switzerland
, work=BBC
A cause of slight terror; something that inspires fear or dread.
To frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.
* (rfdate) (Shakespeare)
* (The Langoliers)
As nouns the difference between horrible and scare
is that horrible is a thing that causes horror; a terrifying thing, particularly a prospective bad consequence asserted as likely to result from an act while scare is a minor fright.As an adjective horrible
is causing horror; terrible; shocking.As a verb scare is
to frighten, terrify, startle, especially in a minor way.horrible
English
Noun
(en noun)- Here's a carcase. I know not all that may be coming, but be it what it will, I'll go to it laughing. Such a waggish leering as lurks in all your horribles !
- A lot of the possible horribles conjured up by the people objecting to this convention ignore the plain language of this treaty.
- The pot had previously simmered skate wings, cods' heads, whales, pigs' hearts and a long litany of other horribles .
CNN interview, January 21, 2000:
- I'm trying to convince him that the criminal behavior that's going on at the White House has to end. And I give him one horrible after the next. I just keep raising them. He sort of swats them away.
- Many scholars have demonstrated these horribles and contemplated significant limitations on class actions.
Adjective
(en-adj)Synonyms
* See alsoReferences
scare
English
Noun
(en noun)- Johnny had a bad scare last night.
citation, page= , passage=England were held to a draw after surviving a major scare against Switzerland as they were forced to come from two goals behind to earn a point in the Euro 2012 qualifier at Wembley.}}
- JM is a scare to the capitalists of this country.
Synonyms
* frightSee also
* scarecrowVerb
- Did it scare you when I said "Boo!"?
- The noise of thy crossbow / Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost.
- (Laurel Stevenson) Would you please be quiet? You're scaring the little girl.
- (Craig Toomey) Scaring the little girl?! Scaring the little girl?! Lady!