dare

verb

1. (intransitive)To have enough courage (to do something).

   “I wouldn't dare (to) argue with my boss.”

   “No one dares (to) criticize his decisions.”

   “They daredn't tell me the truth, even though I dared (to) acknowledge my mistake to them.”

   “I daren't tell him I've had an affair with another man.”

   “The fellow dares not deceive me.”

2. (transitive)To defy or challenge (someone to do something).

   “I dare you to kiss that girl.”

   “Don't back away just yet / From destinations set / I dare you to be proud / To dare to shout aloud / For convictions that you feel / Like sound from bells to peal”

   “Particular note, in this period, should be made of the actions of Joseph Denman, commander of the Northern Division of the Squadron, who went on an absolutely ruthless and systematic campaign along the African coast, burning so-called "slaving factories" to the ground and openly daring anyone who objected to try and stop him.”

3. (transitive)To have enough courage to meet or do something, go somewhere, etc.; to face up to.

   “Will you dare death to reach your goal?”

   “To wrest it from barbarism, to dare its solitudes.”

4. (transitive)To terrify; to daunt.

   “For I have done those follies, those mad mischiefs, Would dare a woman.”

5. (archaic, transitive)To drive larks to the ground by scaring them (for instance, with mirrors or hawks) so they can be caught in nets.

   “I have an hobby can make larks to dare”

   “dare us, like larks”

   “How, think you, would that godly prince (if he were now living) handle our idols, set up against God's commandment directly, and being figures of nothing but folly, and for fools to gaze on, till they become as wise as the blocks themselves which they stare on, and so fall down as dared larks in that gaze, and being themselves alive, worship a dead stock or stone, gold or silver, and so become idolaters […]”

6. (obsolete)To stare stupidly or vacantly; to gaze as though amazed or terrified.
7. (obsolete)To lie or crouch down in fear.

noun

1. A challenge to prove courage.

   “I did it just for a dare.”

2. The quality of daring; venturesomeness; boldness.

   “It lends a lustre […] / A large dare to our great enterprise.”

3. Defiance; challenge.

   “Childish, unworthy dares / Are not enough to part our powers.”

   “Sextus Pompeius / Hath given the dare to Caesar.”

4. In the game truth or dare, the choice to perform a dare set by the other players.

   “When asked truth or dare, she picked dare.”

5. A small fish, the dace

   “The Dare is not unlike a Chub, but proportionably less; his Body is more white and flatter, and his Tail more forked.”

name

1. (US, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of Drug Abuse Resistance Education.
2. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of Dictionary of American Regional English.
3. A surname.