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Scary vs Anxious - What's the difference?

scary | anxious |

As adjectives the difference between scary and anxious

is that scary is causing or able to cause fright while 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 scary

is barren land having only a thin coat of grass.

scary

English

Etymology 1

Adjective

(er)
  • Causing or able to cause fright
    • The tiger's jaws were scary.
    She was hiding behind her pillow during the scary parts of the film.
  • (US, colloquial, dated) Subject to sudden alarm; nervous, jumpy.
    • (Whittier)
  • * 1916 , Texas Department of Agriculture, Bulletin (issues 47-57), page 150:
    • And let us say to these interests that, until the Buy-It-Made-In-Texas movement co-operates with the farmers, we are going to be a little scary of the snare.
    Synonyms
    * (causing fright) frightening

    Etymology 2

    From dialectal English .

    Noun

  • Barren land having only a thin coat of grass.

    • Anagrams

    * *

    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

    Related terms

    * anger * anguish * anxiety

    External links

    * * English refractory feminine rhymes