fear

«fear» in Mova's school dictionary: the feeling you have when you think something bad or… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (fear, fears); verb (fear, fears, feared, fearing); adjectives fearful, fearless

meaning for a pupil

1) Fear is the feeling you have when you think something bad or dangerous might happen. tree →

2) A fear is a particular thing that frightens you: a fear of spiders. tree →

3) To fear something means to be afraid of it. tree →

4) To fear can mean to worry that something bad is true: I fear we are late. tree →

sense in the lessons

In lessons about feelings, fear is normal and useful: it warns us of danger and makes the heart beat fast and the body ready to run or fight. Being brave means doing the right thing even when you feel fear; talking about fears helps make them smaller. In stories fear builds tension and suspense. Phrases: fear of the dark, in fear, for fear of, face your fears, no fear (informal: no way), shaking with fear.

examples

• Many children have a fear of the dark. tree →
• She was shaking with fear during the storm. tree →
• Fear makes your heart beat faster. tree →
• Facing your fears can make you stronger. tree →
• The rabbit froze in fear when it saw the fox. tree →
• He didn't climb the tree for fear of falling. tree →
• Tell someone you trust about your fears. tree →
• Firefighters run into burning buildings without fear. tree →
• Every heart was full of fear. tree →

note

Noun forms: fear (uncountable feeling), fears (particular things). Adjectives: fearful (full of fear), fearless (without fear). In everyday speech people more often say «be afraid of» or «be scared of» than «fear». A fear of something does not mean it is truly dangerous, and something dangerous can feel safe.

In the corpora

• Grown-ups have all the same feelings children have: anger, sadness, fear, loneliness, jealousy, embarrassment and pride.
• Bad-news gossip can feel caring but still spreads fear; offer help, not headlines.
• How are you feeling?" Freya bursts into tears, and then it's over much quicker than she feared.
• Children sometimes hide what happened online because they fear trouble, and problems grow when kept secret.
• Some fears are close to home, like a parent's job changing.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «fear» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.