for fear of

Idioms

Also, for fear that. In order to avoid or prevent, in case of. For example, They closed all the windows for fear of rain. The variant is always used before a clause, as in She wouldn't let her children climb trees for fear that they would fall. The first term dates from the late 1400s, the second from about 1600.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

As night began to fall, search and rescue teams lit large floodlights to continue their search for the missing, while police and military officers dispersed the hundreds of onlookers for fear of another strike.

From Barron's

Jaye, a TikTokker who recently started working for Girl Guiding, says she sometimes tries to suppress or "mask" her tics for fear of coming across as unprofessional.

From BBC

He worried about gossip, “I was unwilling to call upon you to.night for fear of talk.”

From Literature

The three East Africans -- who did not want to disclose their real names or nationality, for fear of repercussions -- described their cases in interviews with AFP.

From Barron's

More than 3,000 people marched in Lyon on Saturday in tribute to Deranque, with authorities deploying heavy security for fear of further clashes.

From Barron's

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023