scary

Etymology 1

scare + -y

adj

1. (now chiefly informal) Causing fear or anxiety
   The tiger's jaws were scary.
   She was hiding behind her pillow during the scary parts of the film.
   […] How scary it is to know that everyone I love depends on me! I’m afraid I’ll do something wrong. 1982, Anne Tyler, chapter 2, in Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, New York: Ivy Books, published 1992, page 70
2. (informal) Uncannily striking or surprising.
   Linda changed her hair, and it’s scary how much she looks like her mother.
3. (US, colloquial) Subject to sudden alarm; easily frightened.
   “Whist! whist!” said Natty, in a low voice, on hearing a slight sound made by Elizabeth, in bending over the side of the canoe, in eager curiosity; “’tis a sceary animal, and it’s a far stroke for a spear. […]” 1823, James Fenimore Cooper, chapter 5, in The Pioneers, volume 2, New York: Charles Wiley, the UK edition of the same year has scary (p.262)], page 77
   “She’s cursed,” said the skipper; “speak her fair: I’m scary always to see her shake Her wicked head, with its wild gray hair, And nose like a hawk, and eyes like a snake.” 1867, John Greenleaf Whittier, The Tent on the Beach, and Other Poems, Boston: Ticknor and Fields, The Wreck of Rivermouth, page 25
   And let us say to these interests that, until the Buy-It-Made-In-Texas movement co-operates with the farmers, we are going to be a little scary of the snare. 1916, Texas Department of Agriculture, “Bulletin”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), numbers 47-57, page 150
   The two brothers stood over the dead rat […]. “Please, Bigger, take ’im out,” Vera begged. “Aw, don’t be so scary,” Buddy said. 1940, Richard Wright, Native Son, book 1, London: Jonathan Cape, published 1970, page 10

adv

1. (informal) To a scary extent; scarily.
   At 199 centimetres and a hundred kilos going up, he was scary big and he found work as a bouncer and enforcer[.] 2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 117
   [T]he main reason I don't want to give her a GA is she's so scary fat! 2020, S. Clarence Dodge, Beyond Blood: Inside the Mind of an Anesthesiologist, Xlibris Corporation

Etymology 2

From dialectal English scare (“scraggy”).

noun

1. Barren land having only a thin coat of grass.