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DARING
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The trait of being willing to undertake things that involve risk or danger
Example:
the plan required great hardiness of heart
Synonyms:
boldness; daring; hardihood; hardiness
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("daring" is a kind of...):
fearlessness (the trait of feeling no fear)
Attribute:
bold (fearless and daring)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "daring"):
adventurousness; venturesomeness (the trait of being adventurous)
daredevilry; daredeviltry (boldness as manifested in rash and daredevil behavior)
audaciousness; audacity; temerity (fearless daring)
brazenness; shamelessness (behavior marked by a bold defiance of the proprieties and lack of shame)
Derivation:
dare (to be courageous enough to try or do something)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A challenge to do something dangerous or foolhardy
Example:
he could never refuse a dare
Synonyms:
dare; daring
Classified under:
Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents
Hypernyms ("daring" is a kind of...):
challenge (a call to engage in a contest or fight)
Derivation:
dare (challenge)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Disposed to venture or take risks
Example:
a venturous spirit
Synonyms:
audacious; daring; venturesome; venturous
Classified under:
Similar:
adventuresome; adventurous (willing to undertake or seeking out new and daring enterprises)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Radically new or original
Example:
an avant-garde theater piece
Synonyms:
avant-garde; daring
Classified under:
Similar:
original (being or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being as first made or thought of)
III. (verb)
Sense 1
-ing form of the verb dare
Context examples:
"Quite delightful!" cried Mrs Clay, not daring, however, to turn her eyes towards Anne.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
They would have run away severally had they dared; but fear kept them together, and kept them close by John, as if his daring helped them.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
He talked, therefore, for several minutes without Fanny's daring to interrupt him.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Then, hardly daring to look and yet unable to turn away my eyes, I saw a figure dimly outlined in the corner upon which the stair opened.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
My heart palpitated in the sickness of fear, and I hurried on with irregular steps, not daring to look about me.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
A program to spur development of daring technologic improvements in cancer treatment and detection in the 21st century.
(NCI Unconventional Innovations Program, NCI Thesaurus)
It was at once clear that a daring and gigantic robbery had been committed.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Then I made inquiries as to this mysterious assistant and found that I had to deal with one of the coolest and most daring criminals in London.
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
There were men who said that of all the stern passages and daring deeds by which Sir Nigel Loring had proved the true temper of his courage, not the least was his wooing and winning of so forbidding a dame.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
What totally different feelings did Emma take back into the house from what she had brought out!—she had then been only daring to hope for a little respite of suffering;—she was now in an exquisite flutter of happiness, and such happiness moreover as she believed must still be greater when the flutter should have passed away.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
