afeard

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a·feard

also a·feared (ə-fîrd′)

adj. Southern & Midland US

Afraid.

[Middle English afered, from Old English āfǣred, past participle of āfǣran, to frighten : ā-, intensive pref. + fǣran, to frighten (from fǣr, danger; see fear).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

afeard

(əˈfɪəd) or

afeared

adj

(postpositive) an archaic or dialect word for afraid

[Old English āfǣred, from afǣran to frighten, from fǣran to fear]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

a•feard

or a•feared

(əˈfɪərd)

adj.

Dial. afraid.

[before 1000]

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Adj.

afeard - a pronunciation of afraid

afeared

regionalism - a feature (as a pronunciation or expression or custom) that is characteristic of a particular region

afraid - filled with fear or apprehension; "afraid even to turn his head"; "suddenly looked afraid"; "afraid for his life"; "afraid of snakes"; "afraid to ask questions"

afeard

also afeared
adjective

Regional. Filled with fear or terror:

afraid, aghast, apprehensive, fearful, fearsome, funky, panicky.

Regional: ascared.

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References in classic literature ?

We turned in and soothed him down and told him we would plan for him and help him, and he needn't be so afeard; and so by and by he got to feeling kind of comfortable again, and unscrewed his heelplates and held up his di'monds this way and that, admiring them and loving them; and when the light struck into them they WAS beautiful, sure; why, they seemed to kind of bust, and snap fire out all around.

Twice we stopped to fix the machinery and laid a good while, once in the night; but it wasn't dark enough, and he was afeard to skip.

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I am ready to wager upon myself against you if you are not afeard."

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It's a clean hand now; shake it -- don't be afeard."

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"When I was a young men I used tull be afeard thot the owners would guv me the sack.

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who's afeard?--it's down river, somer near my old man, perhaps?" said Chloe, speaking the last in the tone of a question, and looking at Mrs.

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And always Merlin lay about the lady to have her maidenhood, and she was ever passing weary of him, and fain would have been delivered of him, for she was afeard of him because he was a devil's son, and she could not beskift him by no mean.

THE MAGIC OF MERLIN: The mythical figure of Merlin has taken on many guises through the centuries: from post-biblical prophet to political thinker and, more recently, a foolish old man undone by infatuation

No Canadian is afeard of Ghosts" (Moodie 1857: 137).

SPECTRALITY IN MARGARET ATWOOD'S "DEATH BY LANDSCAPE" (1990)

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

The Local and the Global: Poetry, Philosophy and History

The dense textures of the very recent Be Not Afeard, a setting from The Tempest for Shakespeare's 400th anniversary, were delivered with great clarity, Alexis Cooling's soprano vocalising mesmerically above her colleagues.

MUSIC

As Ross remarks less than a score of lines later: "He [Duncan] finds thee in the stout Norwegian ranks, / Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make, / Strange images of death" (1.3.93-95).