for fear of
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
to prevent something unwanted from happening
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Để ngăn chặn điều gì đó không mong muốn xảy ra
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: out of fear that
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
I'll take an umbrella for fear of getting wet.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “for fear of” mean?
to prevent something unwanted from happening Literally: out of fear that
Is “for fear of” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.