Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Filled with fear; frightened.
- adjective Having feelings of aversion or unwillingness in regard to something.
- adjective Filled with regret or concern. Used especially to soften an unpleasant statement.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Impressed with fear or apprehension; fearful: followed by of before the object of fear, where that is not an infinitive: as, to be afraid of death; I am afraid to go.
- Synonyms Afraid, Frightened, Terrified, timid, shy, apprehensive, troubled, suspicious, distrustful. Afraid expresses a less degree of fear than frightened or terrified, which describe outward states. In colloquial language, I am afraid is often nearly equivalent to I suspect, I am inclined to think, or the like, and is regularly used as a kind of polite introduction to a correction, objection, etc., or to make a statement sound less positive: as, I am afraid you are wrong; I am afraid that argument won't hold.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Afraid comes after the noun it limits. Impressed with fear or apprehension; in fear; apprehensive.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Impressed with
fear orapprehension ; in fear. - adjective colloquial
regretful ,sorry
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective filled with regret or concern; used often to soften an unpleasant statement
- adjective having feelings of aversion or unwillingness
- adjective feeling worry or concern or insecurity
- adjective filled with fear or apprehension
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Well if Hope/Change/Hope/Change is a broken record what the heck is * be afraid, be very afraid*?
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Let him go, and he will walk the streets with a swagger, and boast that you were afraid to touch him -- _afraid_, gentlemen -- and children and women will point after him as the man who has sent nine others into eternity, and who yet walks the streets a free man.
Public Speaking Irvah Lester Winter
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"Captain, we have had hard times of it out there, but _don't be afraid, don't be afraid_."
Three Years in the Sixth Corps A Concise Narrative of Events in the Army of the Potomac, from 1861 to the Close of the Rebellion, April, 1865 George T. Stevens
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And I'm afraid of what'll come to the child without me; I'm _afraid_, Mr. Peter.
The Lee Shore Rose Macaulay 1919
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"I'll tell you something I want you to do and you're afraid to do it -- you're _afraid_."
Tom Slade's Double Dare Percy Keese Fitzhugh 1913
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"I'm afraid -- I'm _afraid_ we couldn't allow you to be a mere figurehead."
Mr. Waddington of Wyck May Sinclair 1904
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Mr. Ashburn, if you can't say anything more than this -- anything, you understand, which puts you in a position to treat with us, I'm afraid -- I'm _afraid_ I must ask time to think over this.
The Giant's Robe F. Anstey 1895
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"I'm afraid, my dear Mirliflor," said Queen Selina, "I'm _afraid_ you can't see her before you go."
In Brief Authority F. Anstey 1895
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_ -- Do not be afraid to think of it; on the contrary, do think of it, but to say to it, "I am not _afraid_ of you."
Maîtrise de soi-même par l'autosuggestion consciente. English Emile Cou�� 1891
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Let him go, and he will walk the streets with a swagger, and boast that you were afraid to touch him -- _afraid_, gentlemen -- and children and women will point after him as the man who has sent nine others into eternity, and who yet walks the streets a free man.
The Exiles and Other Stories Richard Harding Davis 1890
anydelirium commented on the word afraid
'For to be afraid of oneself is the last horror.' -The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis
February 20, 2008