From Middle English staren, from Old English starian (“to stare”), from Proto-West Germanic *starēn, from Proto-Germanic *starjaną, *starāną (“to be fixed, be rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster-.
Cognate with Dutch staren (“to stare”), German starren (“to stare”), German starr (“stiff”). More at start.
Meanings
A persistent gaze.
Who's that lounging in my chair? / Who's that casting devious stares in my direction? 1997, “Sex and Candy”, performed by Marcy Playground:
From Middle English staren, from Old English starian (“to stare”), from Proto-West Germanic *starēn, from Proto-Germanic *starjaną, *starāną (“to be fixed, be rigid”), from Proto-Indo-European *ster-.
Cognate with Dutch staren (“to stare”), German starren (“to stare”), German starr (“stiff”). More at start.
Meanings
(followed by "at", intransitive) To look fixedly (at something).
She found him staring with raised eyebrows at her.
A great bargain also had been the excellent Axminster carpet which covered the floor; as, again, the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair. 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, →OCLC; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., […], [1933], →OCLC:
Her sturdy stallion had now unbutton'd, and produced naked, stiff, and erect, that wonderful machine, which I had never seen before, and which, for the interest my own seat of pleasure began to take furiously in it, I star'd at with all the eyes I had 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
(transitive) To influence in some way by looking fixedly.
to stare a timid person into submission
(intransitive) To be very conspicuous on account of size, prominence, colour, or brilliancy.
staring windows or colours
(intransitive, obsolete) To stand out; to project; to bristle.
Makest my blood cold, and my hair to stare. 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
Take off all the staring straws, twigs and jags in the hive. 1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC:
From Middle English star, ster, from Old English stær (“starling”), from Proto-Germanic *starô (“starling”), from Proto-Indo-European *stor- (“starling”).
Cognate with German Star (“starling”), Danish stær (“starling”), Swedish stare (“starling”), Norwegian Nynorsk stare (“starling”), Icelandic stari (“starling”). Compare also Old English stearn (“a type of bird, starling”).
Meanings
(archaic) A starling.
The Stares be bigger than thoſe in England, as blacke as Crovves, being the most troubleſome, and injurious bird of all others, pulling up the cornes by the roots, vvhen it is young, […] 1634, William Wood, “Of the Birds and Fowles both of Land and Water”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 1st part, page 29: