fear

fear n

1 Fear, dread, fright, alarm, dismay, consternation, panic, terror, horror, trepidation denote the distressing or disordering agitation which overcomes one in the anticipation or in the presence of danger.

Fear is the most general term; like dread, it implies apprehension and anxiety, but it also frequently suggests a loss of courage amounting to cowardice

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fear came upon me, and trembling— Job 4:14

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he had, indeed, an awful dread of death, or rather "of something after death"— Boswell

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do you know what fear is? Not ordinary fear of insult, injury or death, but abject, quivering dread of something that you cannot see— Kipling

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the only thing we have to fear is fear itself— Roosevelt

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Fright implies the shock of sudden, startling, and usually short-lived fear; alarm suggests the fright which is awakened by sudden awareness of imminent danger

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she had taken fright at our behavior and turned to the captain pitifully— Conrad

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she stared at her husband in alarm; her golden-hazel eyes were black with apprehension— Wylie

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thou wast born amid the din of arms, and sucked a breast that panted with alarms— Cowper

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Dismay implies deprivation of spirit, courage, or initiative, especially by an alarming or disconcerting prospect

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the storm prevails, the rampart yields a way, bursts the wild cry of horror and dismay!—Campbell

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Consternation heightens the implication of prostration or confusion of the faculties

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'tis easy to believe, though not to describe, the consternation they were all in— Defoe

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Panic is overmastering and unreasoning, often groundless, fear or fright

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a blockhead, who was in a perpetual panic lest I should expose his ignorance— De Quincey

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Terror suggests the extremity of consternation or dread

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the terror by night— Ps 91:5

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frozen with terror— Beckford

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soul-chilling terror— Shelley

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Horror adds the implication of shuddering abhorrence or aversion, for it usually connotes a sight, activity, or demand rather than a premonition as a cause of fear

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the horror of supernatural darkness— Pater

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shrank from the task with all the horror of a well-bred English gentleman— Woolf

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Trepidation adds to dread the implication of timidity, especially as manifested by trembling or by marked hesitation

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the Stubland aunts were not the ladies to receive a solicitor's letter calmly. They were thrown into a state of extreme trepidation— H. G. Wells

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It is often used for a polite pretense of fear or timidity

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I take up with some trepidation the subject of program music— Babbitt

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Analogous words: *apprehension, foreboding, misgiving, presentiment: anxiety, worry, concern (see CARE)

Antonyms: fearlessness

Contrasted words: boldness, bravery, intrepidity, valiancy (see corresponding adjectives at BRAVE): *courage, mettle, spirit, resolution: *confidence, assurance, aplomb

2 awe, *reverence

Analogous words: veneration, worship, adoration (see under REVERE): admiration, *wonder, amazement: respect, esteem (see REGARD n)

Antonyms: contempt