scheuen

German

Etymology

From Middle High German schiuhen, from Old High German sciuhen, from Proto-West Germanic *skiuhan, from the Proto-Germanic adjective *skiuhaz (shy). By surface analysis, scheu +‎ -en. Doublet of scheuchen.

Compare Dutch schuwen.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈʃɔɪ̯ən/
  • Hyphenation: scheu‧en
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

scheuen (weak, third-person singular present scheut, past tense scheute, past participle gescheut, auxiliary haben)

  1. (transitive) to shrink from; to shun
    Das Pferd scheut vor dem Hindernis.The horse balks at the hurdle.
    Der Junge ist einfach nur faul, er scheut die Arbeit, wo er nur kann.The boy is simply just lazy; he avoids work wherever he can.
  2. (reflexive) to be afraid of, to shrink from, to shy away from [with vor (+ dative) ‘something’]
    Synonym: fürchten
    Wir scheuen uns davor, ihm Unannehmlichkeiten zu bereiten.We're afraid of causing him troubles.

Conjugation

Further reading

  • scheuen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • scheuen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • scheuen” in Duden online
  • scheuen” in OpenThesaurus.de