Stare Meaning
/stɛɚ/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo look fixedly (at something).
verbTo influence in some way by looking fixedly.
Sentence Examples
People shouldn't stare at foreigners.
Don't stare at people.
My sister fixed me with an angry stare.
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms:
Antonyms:
None
CEFR Practice Quiz
Unable to believe what she saw, she continued to ____ at the strange object for minutes.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It is considered very rude to ____ at people for a long time, especially when they are eating lunch.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English staren, from Old English starian (“to stare”), from Proto-West Germanic *starēn, from Proto-Germanic *starjaną, *starāną (“to be fixed, be rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster-. Cognate with Dutch staren (“to stare”), German starren (“to stare”), German starr (“stiff”). More at start.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Her sturdy stallion had now unbutton'd, and produced naked, stiff, and erect, that wonderful machine, which I had never seen before, and which, for the interest my own seat of pleasure began to take furiously in it, I star'd at with all the eyes I had"
— 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
"A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair."
— 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC, page 0016:
"Makest my blood cold, and my hair to stare."
— 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
"Take off all the staring straws, twigs and jags in the hive."
— 1707, John Mortimer, The whole Art of Husbandry, in the way of Managing and Improving of Land:
"Who's that lounging in my chair? / Who's that casting devious stares in my direction?"
— 1997, “Sex and Candy”, performed by Marcy Playground:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Unable to believe what she saw, she continued to ____ at the strange object for minutes.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
It is considered very rude to ____ at people for a long time, especially when they are eating lunch.