‘To scare away’ is when we scare someone or something (by accident or deliberately), so much that that thing or person changes location.
Very often this phrasal verb will take an object in the form of a thing or person between the words scare and away. For example:
“I don’t like going to nightclubs with Edward; don’t get me wrong! I mean I like the guy, he’s a lot of fun, but he always scares the girls away!”
Or from the example in the meme:
“Frank, you’ll scare the birds away!”
It is perfectly fine to have the object outside of this word pair, and the meaning doesn’t change, for example:
‘The dogs scared away the ducks.’
When using this phrasal verb in the passive form it is not possible to put the object between the words ‘scare’ and ‘away’ because in the passive it is the object that takes on the subject role of the sentence, for example:
‘The ducks were scared away by the dogs’
- Don’t get me wrong! – (Awaiting link to a meme that uses this expression)
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