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Sinister vs Scary - What's the difference?

sinister | scary |

As adjectives the difference between sinister and scary

is that sinister is inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister) while scary is causing or able to cause fright.

As a noun scary is

barren land having only a thin coat of grass.

sinister

English

Alternative forms

* sinistre (obsolete)

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Inauspicious]], ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in [[w:bar sinister, bar sinister ).
  • * Ben Jonson
    • All the several ills that visit earth, / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.
  • *'>citation
  • Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
    • sinister influences
    the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
  • Of the left side.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Here on his sinister cheek.
  • * Shakespeare
    • My mother's blood / Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister / Bounds in my father's.
  • * 1911 , (Saki), ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis :
    • Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J. P. Huddle, The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough.’
  • (heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
  • (obsolete) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.
  • * South
    • He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • He read in their looks sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself.

    Antonyms

    * (of the right side): dexter * (heraldry): dexter

    Derived terms

    * bar sinister * baton sinister * bend sinister * sinister aspect * sinister base * sinister chief * sinistral

    Anagrams

    * ----

    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

    * *