# scary
## English
### Alternative forms

* scarey (dated)

### Etymology 1

From scare +‎ -y.

#### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) enPR: skâr'ē IPA: /ˈskɛəɹi/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈskɛəɹi/, /ˈskɛɹi/
** Audio (US):(file)
* (General Australian) IPA: /ˈskeːɹi/
* (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA: /ˈskeəɹi/
* (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) IPA: /ˈskiəɹi/
* (Scotland) IPA: /ˈskeɹɪ/, /ˈskeɹe/
* (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA: /ˈskɜːɹɪ/
** Homophone: skerry (only in accents with the Mary-marry-merry merger)
* Rhymes: -ɛəɹi

#### Adjective

scary (comparative scarier, superlative scariest)
* (now chiefly informal) Causing fear or anxiety
    Synonyms: frightening, hair-raising, petrifying, terrifying; see also Thesaurus:frightening
    The tiger's jaws were scary.
    She was hiding behind her pillow during the scary parts of the film.
** 1884 December 10, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter 29, in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) […], London: Chatto & Windus, […], →OCLC:Well, we swarmed along down the river road, just carrying on like wildcats; and to make it more scary the sky was darking up, and the lightning beginning to wink and flitter, and the wind to shiver amongst the leaves.
** 1982, Anne Tyler, chapter 2, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant‎, New York: Ivy Books, published 1992, page 70:“ […] How scary it is to know that everyone I love depends on me! I’m afraid I’ll do something wrong.”
** 2007 September 2, Terrence Rafferty, “Technicolor Dreamboat”, in The New York Times‎:Age notwithstanding, none of these men seem interested in sailing to Byzantium anyway: Justine’s got them all on the last stage to someplace wilder and scarier, where Yeats’s “monuments of unaging intellect” are thoroughly beside the point.
** 2020, Lesley L. Smith, A Jack For All Seasons, page 45:The biggest, scariest, scarriest man in the room said, “It's about time, Jones.”
* (informal) Uncannily striking or surprising.
    Linda changed her hair, and it’s scary how much she looks like her mother.
* (US, colloquial) Subject to sudden alarm; easily frightened.
    Synonyms: nervous, jumpy
** 1823, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 5, in The Pioneers‎, volume 2, New York: Charles Wiley, the UK edition of the same year has scary (p. 262), page 77:“Whist! whist!” said Natty, in a low voice, on hearing a slight sound made by Elizabeth, in bending over the side of the canoe, in eager curiosity; “’tis a sceary animal, and it’s a far stroke for a spear. […] ”
** 1867, John Greenleaf Whittier, The Tent on the Beach, and Other Poems‎, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, The Wreck of Rivermouth, page 25:“She’s cursed,” said the skipper; “speak her fair: I’m scary always to see her shake Her wicked head, with its wild gray hair, And nose like a hawk, and eyes like a snake.”
** 1916, Texas Department of Agriculture, “Bulletin”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), numbers 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.
** 1940, Richard Wright, Native Son‎, book 1, London: Jonathan Cape, published 1970, page 10:The two brothers stood over the dead rat […] . “Please, Bigger, take ’im out,” Vera begged. “Aw, don’t be so scary,” Buddy said.

##### Derived terms

* scaries
* Sunday scaries
* scarily
* scariness
* scarisome
* scarysome
* scary devil monastery
* scary sharp
* scary-ass

#### Adverb

scary (not comparable)
* (informal) To a scary extent; scarily.
** 2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 117:At 199 centimetres and a hundred kilos going up, he was scary big and he found work as a bouncer and enforcer[.]
** 2020, S. Clarence Dodge, Beyond Blood: Inside the Mind of an Anesthesiologist‎, Xlibris Corporation:[T]he main reason I don't want to give her a GA is she's so scary fat!

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From dialectal English scare (“scraggy”).

#### Noun

scary
* Barren land having only a thin coat of grass.

### Anagrams

* -crasy, Carys, Crays, carsy, crays, scray